[{"body":"On March 26, 2026, the European Court of Human Rights published judgments on complaints filed by 30 individual believers and 4 legal entities. The court determined that Russia's actions violate the rights of Jehovah's Witnesses to freedom of religion, the inviolability of the home and freedom from ill-treatment.\nThese are the last applications against the Russian Federation filed by Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses with the European Court before September 16, 2022, the moment of Russia\u0026#39;s withdrawal from the jurisdiction of the ECHR. They were combined into five cases. In its consideration of Kutsenko v. Russia, the ECHR concluded that in February 2020, Vadim Kutsenko, a resident of Chita, was subjected to cruel treatment by law enforcement officers. The State failed to protect the physical well-being of a person in detention who is, therefore, in a vulnerable position. The authorities refused to conduct a comprehensive criminal investigation into the use of violence against the believer. It is noteworthy that in 2021, the charges of \u0026quot;organizing the activity of an extremist organization\u0026quot; against him were dropped, but 3.5 years later the criminal prosecution resumed.\nIn the case of Suvorov and Others v. Russia, the European Court found that the authorities prosecuted people for their religious beliefs, subjected them to illegal detention, and conducted groundless searches. In this case, the Russian court saw \u0026quot;extremism\u0026quot; in the fact that believers gathered for a friendly evening in a café, where they held competitions, played jokes, sang songs and danced.\nSimilar violations by the Russian law enforcement agencies are described in the judgment in the case of Chaykovskiy and Others v. Russia. It concerned mass raids in Moscow in November 2020 and the subsequent criminal prosecution of local Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses. One of the applicants, Yuriy Chernyshev, sentenced to 6 years in a penal colony, recalls: \u0026quot;About 12 people broke into our home for a search. It was early in the morning. They began breaking down the front door and at the same time several people, smashing the double-glazed window, entered the apartment through the broken window. We live on the fourth floor. They used a cherry picker.\u0026quot; Law enforcement officers consistently treat Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses in a similar way in different regions of Russia.\nAs the ECHR found, the authorities did not prove the applicants\u0026#39; participation in any socially dangerous extremist activity, and the interference in their religious life \u0026quot;was based on an excessively broad interpretation of the legislation on extremism.\u0026quot; According to the court\u0026#39;s judgment, Russia is obliged to pay 183,750 euros in compensation to the applicants. One of the applicants granted monetary compensation by this decision was Aleksandr Lubin. He passed away shortly after his conviction, without seeing justice restored.\n","category":"victory","date":"2026-03-26T00:00:00Z","duration":null,"image":{"svg":"/img/news/statement.svg"},"permalink":"/en/news/2026/04/010828.html","regions":["moscow","kurgan","zabaykalsky","orenburg"],"subtitle":"Consideration of Complaints Filed Before Russia's Withdrawal From Court Jurisdiction Concluded","tags":["echr"],"title":"ECHR Rules Again in Favor of Jehovah's Witnesses.","type":"news"},{"body":"A fine of 500,000 rubles — that was the sentence announced to Nadezhda Lebed by the Savelovskiy District Court of Moscow on December 12, 2025, just a few weeks after a similar ruling against Mariya Pankova. The trial of Nadezhda lasted about 6 months.\n\u0026quot;I have been worshipping Jehovah for almost 30 years. He is the main support for me and my family,\u0026quot; the believer told the court at the final hearing. \u0026quot;From the very beginning, since 1995, and to this day, nothing has changed in my service to God. I still read His Word, the Bible, pray to God, and sing songs of praise.\u0026quot; Nadezhda is convinced that her prosecution is groundless and considers her views to be the exact opposite of extremism. \u0026quot;I am an honest person; I had no criminal intent. I am a Christian and fear God and I do not want to spoil my good relationship with him,\u0026quot; she added.\nThe criminal prosecution began with a search in April 2025 — the second for Nadezhda\u0026#39;s family (law enforcement officers had searched her home in 2021 as part of the Mareyev case). On the same day, officers also raided the home of Pankova. Both women were charged with participating in the activity of an extremist organization because of their faith.\n\u0026quot;The hearings robbed me of a lot of my energy, health, and resources,\u0026quot; Nadezhda recalls. \u0026quot;During this period, I was taken to hospital, to the cardiology department. And I am still undergoing treatment.\u0026quot; The criminal prosecution also brought financial difficulties into her life. \u0026quot;I had been saving part of my pension for a \u0026#39;rainy day\u0026#39;,\u0026quot; she said. \u0026quot;The \u0026#39;rainy day\u0026#39; came, but I cannot use the funds.\u0026quot;\nIn October 2025, the European Court of Human Rights considered complaints from several Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses who faced prosecution because of their faith. The court ruled that searches, arrests, restrictions on freedom, confiscation of property, and charges of extremism for peaceful religious activity were unlawful.\n","category":"verdict","date":"2025-12-12T17:53:50+02:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2025/12/121753/image_hu_cf9d9a13d1749929.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2025/12/121753/image.jpg","webp":"/news/2025/12/121753/image_hu_3703816ff7b4e093.webp","webp2x":"/news/2025/12/121753/image_hu_6defb1d6cc5c4c18.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2025/12/121753.html","regions":["moscow"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["sentence","elderly","rosfinmonitoring","echr","282.2-2"],"title":"Another Guilty Verdict Against One of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Moscow — This Time Court Fines 75-Year-Old Believer","type":"news"},{"body":"On October 16, 2025, the European Court of Human Rights considered the applications of 5 women and 23 men who faced prosecution because of their faith. The court declared searches, arrests, restriction of freedom, confiscation of property and charges of extremism for peaceful religious activity illegal.\nHaving considered the case of Markin and Others v. Russia, the ECHR stressed that the prosecution of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses is \u0026quot;based on the impermissibly broad formulation and application of the extremism legislation.\u0026quot; \u0026quot;Since the authorities failed to demonstrate that the applicants were involved in any socially dangerous activities of an extremist nature, their prosecution and conviction for peacefully practising the religion of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses in community with others... did not pursue any legitimate aim or \u0026quot;pressing social need\u0026quot;,\u0026quot; the judgment reads (paragraph 11).\nGroundless persecution brought severe hardships to the lives of the applicants: some were imprisoned for years, despite their old age or disability, some were separated from their families, and the health of many with serious illnesses worsened. For example, the court sent Valentina Baranovskaya, 70, to a penal colony shortly after a stroke; Yuriy Savelyev, at the age of 66, ended up behind bars and spent almost 5 years there (9 months of which were in strict conditions); Sergey Britvin, who is disabled, was imprisoned for 4 years; Stanislav Kim and Nikolay Polevodov were convicted twice. At the time of the ECHR decision, some applicants were still in penal colonies: father of 4 Sergey Filatov, Aleksandr Ivshin, 68, Artem Gerasimov and Roman Baranovsky.\nThe case of Markin and Others v. Russia included 14 applications, initially filed separately between 2018 and 2022, but due to the similarity of circumstances, were combined into one. The applicants were: Roman Markin and Viktor Trofimov from Polyarny (Murmansk Region); Ivan Puyda, Konstantin Petrov, Sergey Yerkin and Yevgeniy Zyablov from Magadan; Sergey Britvin and Vadim Levchuk from Berezovsky (Kemerovo Region); Nataliya Sorokina and Mariya Troshina from Sychevka (Smolensk Region); Andrzej Oniszczuk, Maksim Khalturin, Vladimir Korobeynikov, Andrey and Yevgeniy Suvorkov from Kirov; Sergey Skrynnikov from Oryol; Igor Ivashin from Lensk(Yakutia); Sergey Filatov, Artem Gerasimov from Crimea; Nikolay Polevodov and Stanislav Kim from Khabarovsk; the Alushkin couple and Galiya Olkhova from Penza; Yuriy Savelyev from Novosibirsk; Aleksandr Ivshin from Kholmskaya (Krasnodar Territory); mother and son Valentina Baranovskaya and Roman Baranovskiy from Abakan.\nThe decision issued in October echoes other ECHR judgments defending Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses\u0026#39; practicing their faith. This time, the believers were awarded compensation totaling EUR 430,000. Taking into account the previous judgments, Russia is obliged to pay more than EUR 4,000,000 to the prosecuted Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses as compensation for non-pecuniary damage.\n","category":"victory","date":"2025-10-16T00:00:00Z","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2025/10/221539/image_hu_95b089cb438c545f.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2025/10/221539/image_hu_7528f5b05d9b6b65.jpg","webp":"/news/2025/10/221539/image_hu_5304f7c3a18e0ba7.webp","webp2x":"/news/2025/10/221539/image_hu_b500f32d9a08b1a6.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2025/10/221539.html","regions":["eu","sakha","crimea","khakassia","murmansk","magadan","smolensk","kemerovo","kirov","oryol","khabarovsk","penza","novosibirsk","krasnodar"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["echr","compensation","families","elderly"],"title":"\"Unlawfully Prosecuted\". ECHR Found Violation of Rights of 28 More Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia","type":"news"},{"body":"Courts continue to send Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses to prison, and the sentence of three of them has set a new record for severity. There have been cases of violence and torture, the proportion of the elderly among the \u0026quot;prisoners of conscience\u0026quot; has increased, there are people with severe disabilities, one of whom died shortly after the verdict; the trend of prosecuting entire families continues. Read about these and other findings for 2024 in this article.\nYear in numbers Judges announce the decision in the case of five believers in Moscow As of December 16, 2024, since the beginning of the year, Russian security forces have conducted at least 96 searches in the homes of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses — 17 in Crimea being the highest number. The total number of raids since the ban reached 2157.\nDuring 2024, 41 persons were made defendants in new criminal cases, of which 19 went through various types of detention, 15 of them are still behind bars. Last year, criminal cases were initiated against 100 believers.\nSentences were handed down to 116 believers. 43 of them (37%) were sentenced to imprisonment (It is noteworthy that this year nine people were sent to forced labor as a punishment). Terms of more than five years were given to 24 people (or almost 56% of those sentenced to imprisonment).\nSince 2017, 842 people have already been prosecuted; 450 of them have spent at least 1 day in custody. Currently, 147 prisoners of conscience are behind bars, either already convicted or awaiting sentencing. Of the 27 prisoners released from colonies, 8 were released this year. Although they have served their main sentence, most continue to experience numerous difficulties due to additional restrictions imposed by the court, which can last up to eight years or sometimes even more. \u0026quot;The cumulative numbers and severity of custodial sentences are increasing. To put it simply, during this year they imprisoned less, but more severely,\u0026quot; Yaroslav Sivulskiy, a representative of the European Association of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses, commented on the statistics.\nIn 2024, the court handed down record-breaking sentences against three Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses. Khabarovsk residents Nikolay Polevodov, Vitaliy Zhuk and Stanislav Kim received eight years and six months, eight years and four months, eight years and two months in a penal colony, respectively. After about three months the court of appeal changed the punishment from imprisonment to a suspended sentence for shorter terms. Therefore, the longest term in 2024 was given to Alexander Chagan from Tolyatti — eight years in a penal colony. All in all, six believers have received such a harsh sentence since 2017.\nThe administration of the pretrial detention center forwarded 93 letters to Nikolay Polevodov, which arrived after his release from detention Over the seven years of mass persecution of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses, the number of people sentenced has reached 543, and 186 believers have been imprisoned. Almost 61% of them (113 people) received terms of more than five years.\nIn 13 regions of Russia, the average term of imprisonment is 6 years or more. This is especially true with the southern territories — the Astrakhan, Rostov, Volgograd Regions, Crimea, and Sevastopol. For comparison: according to the official statistics of the Judicial Department at the Supreme Court of Russia for 2023, of the 1297 people convicted for intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm, only 0.85% (11 people) were sentenced to terms of five to eight years. Most were sentenced to terms of two to three years. It seems that from the point of view of the Russian judicial system, Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses are more dangerous than those who beat people to the point of disability. At the same time, hundreds of trials against Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses accused of extremism have not confirmed a single fact of extremist activity on the part of the believers.\nHunting the Elderly Of the new defendants who appeared in 2024, eight are over 60 years old, the oldest is 74 (Nina Smirnova). In total, among those charged with extremism, 235 people (156 men and 79 women) belong to this age category — this is almost 28% of all those prosecuted. \u0026quot;Up until last December, this share was 26%, and it increased by 2% in 2024. It may not seem much, but there are real people behind the numbers, whose freedom, health and even life are under threat,\u0026quot; said Yaroslav Sivulskiy. \u0026quot;Unfortunately, during criminal proceedings, 9 elderly men and women have already died. One of them — Aleksandr Lubin who was seriously ill. He died a month after his verdict was announced.\u0026quot;\nDuring the court hearings, Lubin had to lie down on a bench to recover his breath \u0026quot;He was very anxious on the days of the court hearings. Afterwards he and his wife needed a couple of days to recover, he had to lie down almost all the time on these days,\u0026quot; Lubin\u0026#39;s lawyer said. \u0026quot;Over the course of the year, his illness progressed and in December he was hospitalized, where he stayed longer than usual. After discharge, his condition remained serious.\u0026quot;\nShortly before his death, Lubin said in court: \u0026quot;It was very painful for me to see how elderly witnesses were interrogated during court hearings in my case. The investigation seemed to deliberately select those who were over 80. They no longer see and hear well; they do not understand many words. Therefore, it gave the impression that the investigators drew up the interrogation protocols at their own discretion.\u0026quot;\nSince the beginning of the persecution, 13 believers have already died: 3 women and 10 men. As of the end of 2024, 27 believers over the age of 60 are being held in colonies, pretrial detention centers, and special detention centers for persons sentenced to forced labor. For example, Boris Andreyev, 73, who was sentenced to six years in a penal colony (he is suspected of having cancer), and Anatoliy Marunov, 71, who received six and a half years in a penal colony, remain behind bars. \u0026quot;The oldest of all the convicted Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses is Yuriy Yuskov. When the suspended sentence imposed on him ends, he will be 90 years old. The oldest defendant is Elena Zayshchuk, 90\u0026quot; said Yaroslav Sivulskiy.\nOne of the examples when the courts did not even try to create the appearance of legality of the process is the case of Tatyana Piskareva. She is 68 years old, and for the past few months she has been held in the correctional center at colony-settlement No 3 for the Oryol Region. In the spring of 2024, the court sentenced her to two and a half years of forced labor, a type of punishment that, as expressly stated in Article 53.1 of the Criminal Code, is not imposed on old-age pensioners. Tatyana mentioned this in her appeal. However, as said in the decision of the appeal court, \u0026quot;the requirements of Article 53.1 of the Criminal Code of Russian Federation were observed by the court.\u0026quot;\nAndrey Vlasov participates in the court hearing via video conferencing from the penal colony Andrey Vlasov, 56, who has a severe disability, has already been in prison for more than two and a half years. He was sentenced to seven years in a penal colony, and the courts deny him early release, despite his rapidly deteriorating health. He is practically unable to move his joints. He experiences constant pain, which is why even everyday tasks — for example, putting on underwear — are very difficult. Some tasks that are simple for a healthy person are completely beyond Vlasov\u0026#39;s strength. He has already fallen several times and could not get up on his own. According to the surgeon, Andrey needs an operation. Failure to do so will lead to an ischemic stroke of the spinal cord and paralysis of the limbs.\nMoreover, the Russian law enforcement system is not lenient to those who are younger, but whose health also requires a special approach. Vladimir Fomin, 44, who is disabled, has been in a pretrial detention center since the end of March 2024. According to his lawyer, Fomin\u0026#39;s condition is getting worse — his chronic illnesses have been exacerbated, and there is no proper treatment. During one of the hearings, he lost consciousness, an ambulance had to be called.\nTorture and Violence In 2024, four cases of violence by law enforcement officers became known. Also, one case of torture in a place of detention was recorded against convicted Rinat Kiramov of Akhtubinsk. The prisoners demanded that Rinat give the names of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses living in Akhtubinsk.\nRinat Kiramov speaks in court Rinat\u0026rsquo;s wife Galina is waiting in the corridor for the decision of the court of cassation Did the pressure achieve its goal? \u0026quot;After beatings and torture, Rinat does not feel that he is a victim. On the contrary, he feels great joy, because he endured everything with dignity, \u0026quot;said Kiramov\u0026#39;s wife Galina shortly after the events described.\nDuring raids in Omsk in March 2024, security forces beat Sergey Rygaev and Leonid Pyzhov.\nIn the same month, during a search in Tolyatti, Sergey Fedorov was beaten and detained. He is still behind bars.\nOn September 16, during raids in Samara, law enforcement officers had been using force against one of the believers for several hours. At some point, the man lost consciousness.\nOn December 5, during searches in Moscow, the security forces hit one believer on the head and abdomen, and broke his nose.\nProsecution of Families Vladimir and Anastasiya Anufriyev, as well as two other families involved in the case, can now only see each other during trials, in a special box for defendants The number of families where more than one person was prosecuted for their faith has exceeded 80. At least nine of them were added in 2024. In one of the cases, three married couples were made defendants at once — Vladimir and Anastasiya Anufriyev, Viktor and Alena Chernobaev, as well as Andrey Mikholap and his wife Oksana. All of them are in pretrial detention at the time of writing.\nIn December 2024 , Kristina Golik, Valentina Yermilova and Yekaterina Olshevskaya were sentenced to forced labor. Earlier, their husbands received long prison terms and are serving their sentences in a penal colony. Before the verdict was announced Yekaterina stated in court: \u0026quot;My husband and my father are imprisoned under the same article. I can see my husband only a few times a year. My son, who is four years old, misses his dad very much and is constantly worried that I will also be sent to prison. Every time he accompanies me to court, my young son asks: \u0026#39;Mom, will you return home today?\u0026#39;\u0026quot;\nIn January 2024, the court separated Aram Danielyan from his wife and young son. The believer was sentenced to 7 years in a penal colony Similar concerns were expressed by Kristina Golik: \u0026quot;My husband will be released in 2027, after which his freedom will be restricted for another year, and he will have a further eight years of administrative supervision. If I am given a prison sentence, then I will have to serve it... The question is: after how many years will we be reunited? I\u0026#39;m scared to even think about it.\u0026quot;\nHowever, the issue of destroying the families of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses turned out to be insignificant for the court — if the sentence enters into force, the believers will have to serve their sentences in a special institution for carrying out forced labor.\nRepressions Against Convicted Persons With the passage of time, law enforcement officers find new ways to put pressure on those who are imprisoned for their faith. For the first time since 2017, one of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses Viktor Stashevsky ended up in regular prison (not to confuse with a penal colony). Prior to that, he was held under strict detention conditions on the basis of penalties, most of which he was unaware of.\nDetention in strict conditions of imprisonment — placement in a punishment cell, CTF and SCTF — is a frequent practice in the cases of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses. According to the rules, a prisoner should not be kept in such a room for more than 15 days, but in practice the punishment is extended, so that believers are kept in strict conditions for months. For example, Alam Aliyev, sentenced to six and a half years in a penal colony, has already been held for almost six months under strict detention conditions in IK-8 for the Amur Region. This is not compatible with the state of his health — he has diabetes mellitus, kidney disease, cardiac and neurological disorders.\nOften, the conditions for imprisoned Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses are hardened on the basis of fabricated or far-fetched violations. The reason may be an unfastened button or the absence of a tag with the prisoner\u0026#39;s name on the cabinet. Sometimes the prisoner does not even know what violations he is charged with. Such penalties are used as grounds for denying believers visits from relatives and make it almost impossible for them to be released on parole. It happens that in a particular colony there is no room corresponding to the punishment. In this case, prisoners are transported to another (sometimes remote) region, to a colony where such a room exists. This limits the possibility to see relatives and receive parcels.\nConcerned people support those who are unjustly convicted with letters. However, censorship does not allow everything to pass through, cutting out or crossing out part of the text There are also specific methods of pressure — when believers are deprived of the opportunity to read the Bible. Often this is done under the pretext that the book does not have a stamp of approval from the Russian Orthodox Church. In the case of Andrey Danielyan and the abovementioned Rinat Kiramov, the FSIN officers went even further — personal copies of the Bible were seized not only from them, but also from all other prisoners. Kiramov\u0026#39;s relatives said that before that, other convicts lent Rinat their copies, but the colony staff forbade them to do so. Not only the Bible was confiscated from Danielyan, but also a personal notebook with quotes from this book.\nPracticing their religion can even result in a new term for a prisoner, as in the case of Dmitriy Terebilov from Kostroma. He became acquainted with the Bible many years ago in the penal colony. Thanks to his new knowledge, Dmitriy changed so much that the administration of the institution itself petitioned for his early release. After his release he became one of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses. Later, Dmitriy was convicted again, this time for his faith. On September 5, his term of imprisonment expired but he was not freed. A new criminal case was initiated against him for answering questions from a cellmate about the beliefs of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses. Now Dmitry is in a pretrial detention center and awaiting another trial. He faces an extension of his term from three to 10 years.\nNew Acquittal In 2024, Ruslan Atakuyev, judge of the Mayskiy District Court of Kabardino-Balkaria, found Kirill Gushchin not guilty of extremism. This decision withstood the courts of appeal and cassation, and the prosecutor\u0026#39;s office made an official apology. Since 2017, various courts have issued a total of 10 acquittals, but until that moment, only two of them were not overturned. In May 2021, the same Mayskiy District Court acquitted Yuriy Zalipayev.\nKabardino-Balkaria is the only region in Russia where Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses have effectively been acquitted.\nKirill Gushchin leaves the courthouse after the announcement of his acquittal, he was greeted by a large support group International Support In the summer 2024, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in favor of 16 Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses who were subjected to illegal searches, arrests, and convictions for their religion in Russia. Although Russia withdrew from the European Convention on Human Rights back in 2022, the Russian Federation is still obliged to pay compensation assigned to believers.\nOn October 24, 2023, the UN Human Rights Committee issued two opinions in favor of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses regarding the rulings to liquidate the local religious organizations (LROs) in Abinsk and Elista. In Russia, these rulings became precedent for the beginning of religious persecution, and a former member of the Abinsk LRO, the elderly Aleksandr Ivshin, is serving time for his faith in a penal colony.\nThe UN Human Rights Committee emphasizes that there are no calls for violence or other information inciting hatred in the literature of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses. In both cases, Russia violated the right of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses to \u0026quot;freedom of thought, conscience and religion\u0026quot; and \u0026quot;the right to freedom of assembly\u0026quot; (Articles 18.1 and 22.1 of the European Convention on Human Rights).\nThe Committee ordered Russia to reconsider the decisions on the ban and ordered it to \u0026quot;take all necessary steps to avoid similar violations in the future.\u0026quot; During 2024, hearings were held in Russia on this issue, but the Committee\u0026#39;s orders were never carried out. Moreover, after the publication of the Opinion of the Human Rights Committee on the liquidation of a religious organization in Abinsk, local security forces initiated a criminal case against Valeriy Baylo, 66 at that time, — for participating in the activity of the Abinsk LRO. The court sentenced the believer to two and a half years in a penal colony. Now he is in custody and is awaiting the decision of the court of appeal.\nAnd in June 2024, the Elista City Court found three women guilty of participating in the activity of the Elista LRO and gave Kishta Tutinova a three-year suspended sentence, and Yekaterina Menkova and Tsagan Khalgaeva two years suspended. The court of appeal toughened the sentence.\nNadezhda Korobochko Back in 2019, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called on the Russian authorities to \u0026quot;drop the charges and release all those detained for exercising their rights to freedom of religion or belief, freedom of expression, as well as the right to peaceful assembly and association.\u0026quot; It is obvious that the demands of the international community have not been met. However, this pressure — imprisonment, risk to health and sometimes even life — does not deprive Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses of their courage. Nadezhda Korobochko, 80, speaking in court before the verdict was announced, expressed the attitude of the majority of those prosecuted for their faith: \u0026quot;As long as I am alive, I will study the Bible. As long as I am alive, I will share the knowledge of God with other people, and nothing can make me give up my faith in God.\u0026quot;\n","category":"analytics","date":"2024-12-23T08:27:03+02:00","duration":"2:13","image":{"jpg":"/news/2024/12/230900/cover_hu_f03b9c8adeb026a6.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2024/12/230900/cover_hu_990bd52f1e0b72a9.jpg","webp":"/news/2024/12/230900/cover_hu_2b62cd40b10aba1b.webp","webp2x":"/news/2024/12/230900/cover_hu_588887d1ec686d5c.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2024/12/230900.html","regions":[],"subtitle":null,"tags":["review","statistics","torture","search","siloviks-violence","torture-conditions","families","prison-treatment","shizo","strict-conditions","letters","acquittal","international","unhrc","echr","died","elderly","disability"],"title":"\"They imprison less, but more severely.\" Repressions against Jehovah's Witnesses: 2024 Overview","type":"video"},{"body":"On October 7, 2024, Natalya Korotneva, judge of the Shadrinskiy District Court of the Kurgan Region, sentenced 68-year-old Aleksandr Lubin, a disabled person, to a fine of 500,000 rubles. The criminal trial in this case took three years.\nThe prosecutor requested a suspended sentence of 7 years for the believer with a 4-year probation period. Aleksandr does not admit guilt – in his opinion, the investigation wrongfully deemed jointly worshipping God to be continuing the activity of a banned legal entity. The believer may appeal the verdict in the higher courts.\nIn July 2021, Nikolay Astapov, an investigator for especially important cases of the First Department of the Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Kurgan Region, initiated a criminal case against Aleksandr Lubin. Then, armed law enforcement officers broke into the home of the elderly disabled couple. Distressed by the search, Tatyana, Aleksandr\u0026#39;s wife, suffered a fourth stroke — she lost the use of her legs and ability to speak. The believer was charged with organizing extremist activity and taken for interrogation to the investigative committee, and then placed in a pretrial detention center for 2 months.\nWhen deciding to detain the believer, Yevgeniy Kolesov, judge of the Kurgan City Court, did not take into account his disability and the danger to his health and life presented by the detention conditions, although the defense had provided all the necessary medical documents. Aleksandr Lubin has a serious vascular disease, hypertension, as well as polyarthritis – a severe autoimmune disease. Due to constant pain in the hip joints, he can hardly move; as prescribed by his doctors, he must use an oxygen cylinder for 16 hours a day, which is not possible in custody.\nThe defense filed a complaint with the ECHR about the detention of the believer. The European Court sent an inquiry to the RF Prosecutor General\u0026#39;s Office. The lawyers also appealed to the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Kurgan Region, Boris Shalyutin, and he initiated an urgent inspection. After that, Aleksandr Lubin was sent to the hospital for a medical examination, which established that his state of health did not allow him to be kept in custody. Eventually, after 1.5 months of detention, the court decided to release the elderly believer from the pretrial detention center under a ban on certain actions.\nAddressing the court, Aleksandr expressed his view of the case as follows: \u0026quot;The charges brought against me are purely based on a preconceived idea about Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses. This approach toward my fellow believers was also prevalent during Nazi Germany, when thousands of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses were thrown into prisons and concentration camps, hundreds were executed, and thousands died from inhumane treatment. Anyone who was identified as one of Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses, regardless of age, was immediately taken into custody. I do not want Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses to be treated with the same prejudice in the Kurgan Region.\u0026quot;\nAlmost all Russian law enforcement agencies are engaged in the persecution of elderly believers: the FSB, the Prosecutor\u0026#39;s Office, the Investigative Committee, the National Guard, the Federal Penitentiary Service, the OMON and the SOBR.\n","category":"verdict","date":"2024-10-07T00:00:00Z","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2024/10/080902/image_hu_a12cdf840d37356a.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2024/10/080902/image_hu_fb63f92bb7fa33be.jpg","webp":"/news/2024/10/080902/image_hu_68b8afe929695fab.webp","webp2x":"/news/2024/10/080902/image_hu_73a702ff7c884912.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2024/10/080902.html","regions":["kurgan"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["sentence","282.2-1","disability","elderly","medical-rights","health-risk","torture-conditions","echr"],"title":"Another Victim of Persecution of Disabled Believers: Court Declared Seriously Ill Pensioner Aleksandr Lubin as Extremist","type":"news"},{"body":"On July 18, 2024, the European Court of Human Rights granted nine applications by Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses from Russia at the same time, who were subjected to unlawful searches, arrests, and convictions for practising their religion. The Russian Federation is obliged to pay the believers 156,000 euros in compensation and 4,000 euros in legal costs.\nThe court ruling concerns 14 men and 2 women. Most of them have already served terms or suspended sentences: Sergey and Anastasia Polyakov, Konstantin Bazhenov, Aleksey Budenchuk, Feliks Makhammadiyev, Gennadiy German, Aleksey Miretskiy, Roman Gridasov, Mariya Karpova, Marat Abdulgalimov, Arsen Abdullaev and Anton Dergalev. Valeriy Moskalenko paid a fine. Irina Buglak continues to serve a suspended sentence. Dmitriy Barmakin, sentenced to 8 years imprisonment, is awaiting transfer to a penal colony. And the case of Roman Makhnev is expected to go to court soon.\nAccording to the ECHR decision, the Russian Federation violated three provisions of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms regarding the applicants. The court classed the detention of believers in metal cages during the hearings degrading treatment (Article 3), and considered their detention, searches and seizure of property groundless and unlawful (Article 5). The ECHR also found that the applicants had been subjected to arbitrary criminal prosecution merely for practicing their faith, which was in violation of the Article on freedom of thought, conscience and religion (Article 9).\nRussia ceased being party to the European Convention on Human Rights on September 16, 2022, but the consideration of these applications was within the jurisdiction of the ECHR — they cover events that took place in 2018-2020. The Russian Federation remains obliged to pay the compensation awarded to the believers, including those awarded under other decisions of the European Court. The total amount already exceeds 3,600,000 euros.\n","category":"victory","date":"2024-07-18T00:00:00Z","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2024/07/231543/image_hu_ca427f4fd896d1e6.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2024/07/231543/image_hu_5c3c6972ebc6f5f3.jpg","webp":"/news/2024/07/231543/image_hu_17a2553ad2ee50ed.webp","webp2x":"/news/2024/07/231543/image_hu_4f7940f2be301a62.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2024/07/231543.html","regions":["eu","primorye","omsk","saratov","khabarovsk","kaluga"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["echr","compensation","families"],"title":"ECHR Recognized Violation of Rights of Another 16 Jehovah's Witnesses from Russia","type":"news"},{"body":"The lawyer continues to present evidence of innocence and asks to attach a number of documents to the case file, including the opinions of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, ECHR rulings, as well as expert opinions on the presence of diseases that prevent Isakov from being held in custody.\nThe defendant testifies.\n","caseTitle":"The Case of Isakov and Minsafin in Kurgan","date":"2024-07-08T00:00:00Z","permalink":"/en/cases/kurgan2/index.html#20240708","regions":["kurgan"],"tags":["first-instance","echr","un-working-group"],"type":"timeline"},{"body":"In 2023, the number of Russian Jehovah’s Witnesses criminally prosecuted for their faith reached almost 800, and the number of searches exceeded 2,000. Cases are fabricated against the elderly, women and the disabled. More than a quarter of all prosecuted are persons over 60 years of age. By the end of the year, there were already six Jehovah’s Witness women in penal colonies. The tendency to prosecute entire families has increased. The length of imprisonment requested by prosecutors has reached 10 years. Statistics and details are included in this article. The Year in Numbers As of December 25, 2023, the total number of homes of Russian Jehovah’s Witnesses searched is 2,058. In 2023, law enforcement officers raided 183 addresses, 43 people were detained, 15 of whom have been or are still in pretrial detention. During the year, Russian courts issued rulings regarding 147 Jehovah’s Witnesses, 47 of whom were sentenced to imprisonment for a cumulative term of more than 257 years (the previous year 44 people were sentenced to a cumulative term of 244 years in penal colonies). Thirty-three people received sentences in penal colonies of 6 years or more. Of these, the longest term of 8 years in a penal colony was given to Dmitriy Barmakin, whose story will be discussed below. On December 22, 2023, the court sentenced Aleksandr Rumyantsev from Moscow to 7.5 years in penal colony (Sean Pike, a citizen of Guyana, and Eduard Sviridov from Moscow, are in the same case and were sentenced to 7 and 6.5 years in a penal colony, respectively). Astrakhan residents Rinat Kiramov, Sergey Korolev and Sergey Kosyanenko, as well as Aleksandr Skvortsov from Taganrog and Evgeniy Bushev from Chelyabinsk received 7 years of imprisonment. In the Bushev case, it took the court just five sessions to conclude that talking about a Bible topic is such a serious crime. Later, it turned out that an officer of the National Guard had participated in the conversation, pretending to be interested in the Bible. On December 19, 2023, a court in Novosibirsk sentenced Marina Chaplykina to 4 years in a penal colony. She became the sixth woman from among Russian Jehovah’s Witnesses to receive a prison sentence for their faith.\nEight of Jehovah’s Witnesses were released from prison this past year. Seventy-nine people remain in penal colonies.\n\"The believers trials do not end with being released from the penal colony,\" explains Yaroslav Sivulskiy, a representative of the European Association of Jehovah’s Witnesses. \"The believers continue to serve additional punishments. For example, during a period appointed by the court, they cannot leave their place of residence. An electronic tracking bracelet is put on the ankle of some for many months, by which the authorities track the location of the person. This device must not be removed. After serving their sentences many are forbidden from working in certain areas, such as education.\"\nThe total number of criminal cases initiated against believers since 2017 has reached 376. The defendants amount to 789 people; 444 believers were convicted, 141 of whom received imprisonment. In all cases, there are no victims, actual crimes or evidence of illegal actions. The cases are initiated for ordinary religious activities: praying, reading the Bible, singing religious songs, etc. Most of the Jehovah’s Witnesses who are prosecuted for their faith are included in the list of extremists and terrorists maintained by the Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring). The state imposes a number of serious economic restrictions on those who are listed on it; for example, their bank accounts are blocked, which makes it difficult to receive salaries, pensions and complete other transactions. At the time of publication of this article, there are 521 believers on the list, 72 of whom were added to the list in 2023.\nTerms are Breaking Records In Magadan, the case of 13 believers, including Ivan Puyda, the son and grandson of Jehovah’s Witnesses who had been repressed under Soviet rule, reached its conclusion. Now he too could receive a lengthy sentence – 10 years. That is how much the prosecutor requested in the closing arguments on November 24, 2023.\nIf Puyda gets 10 years in prison, it will be a unprecedented record in the cases of Russian Jehovah’s Witnesses. Currently, the maximum term in a penal colony is 8 years, and five believers are serving this: Aleksey Berchuk, Rustam Diarov, Yevgeniy Ivanov and Sergey Klikunov.\nOn December 4, 2023, in Irkutsk, the prosecutor requested terms ranging from 3 to 7 years for a group of nine Jehovah’s Witnesses, the longest for Yaroslav Kalin, Nikolay Martynov, Aleksey Solnechny and Sergey Kosteyev. Yaroslav Kalin also comes from a family of those repressed for their faith. Kalin’s lawyer said: \"My client is being tried for the same thing for which his parents were exiled to Siberia, more than 70 years ago.\" Ironically, Kalin’s parents have been officially exonerated, but their son is now being tried for the same \"crime\".\nNew Regions In 2023, the territory affected by prosecutions has expanded. In February, the first searches in the Leningrad Region took place in the cities of Kingisepp and Slantsy, five people were detained and a criminal case was initiated. On April 4, 2023, searches were carried out for the first time in St. Petersburg.\nAt the end of February, searches in at least three addresses took place in Elista, the capital of Kalmykia. Kishta Tutinova, 62, was detained, and after 2 days behind bars she was placed under house arrest.\nIn total, Jehovah’s Witnesses are already being prosecuted in 74 regions of the Russian Federation.\nVladimir Piskarev, Vladimir Melnik and Artur Putintsev were kept in a cage during their trial in Oryol Aleksandr Skortsov and Valeriy Tibiy did not lose heart despite unjust prosecution Konstantin Sannikov in the so-called \u0026#34;aquarium\u0026#34; — an enclosure where usually especially dangerous criminals are held during the trial During the announcement of the verdict, the bailiff handcuffs the seriously ill Vladimir Balabkin Sergey Klimov with his wife immediately after his release from the penal colony Defendants in the case of Tchaikovsky and others in Moscow are taken into custody after the verdict is announced Aleksandr Nikolayev with his wife and daughters after his release from the penal colony Convicted residents of Gukovo communicate via video call from the pretrial detention center with the group of supporters that came to the cassation hearing On the day of Yuriy Savelyev’s release from the penal colony, he was met by a large group of supporters Rustam Seidkuliev’s wife and friends are taking pictures with him after his release from the penal colony in Saratov From left to right: Sergey Kosyanenko, Rinat Kiramov and Sergey Korolev behind bars in the courtroom Muscovites Anatoliy Marunov, Sergey Tolokonnikov and Roman Mareyev were sentenced to long terms for their faith In Surgut, friends came to the courthouse to support their convicted fellow believers, on the day of the verdict. Outdoor temperature was -29°C Marina married Sergey Shulyarenko, convicted for his faith, right in the penal colony Prosecution of the Elderly and Disabled Almost 26% of Russian Jehovah’s Witnesses who have been prosecuted for their faith since 2017 (205 people) are over 60 years old. Criminal cases were initiated against 17 believers in this category in 2023. The oldest of them is 85 years old (the youngest is 19 years old).\nLaw enforcement officers and judges are not troubled by the age, serious illnesses or disabilities of those they accuse. So, on September 13 of this year, a court in the Amur Region sentenced Vladimir Balabkin, 71, suffering from cancer, to 4 years in a penal colony (the prosecutor had requested 2.5 times longer). Immediately after the verdict, he was taken into custody. About three months later, on December 19, 2023, the court of appeal replaced the sentence with a a 1-year suspended sentence, and the believer was released.\nOn September 14, 2023, the Maykop City Court sent 68-year-old Nikolay Voishchev to a penal colony. Even before his arrest, he was diagnosed with a tumor that required immediate treatment. While in prison he is not receiving the adequate medical care he still needs.\nIn the Novosibirsk Region, Andrey Vlasov, a 54-year-old disabled person, continues to serve his sentence for his faith. He suffers from serious illnesses, including deforming arthrosis of both hip joints, which makes it impossible for him to take care of himself. But both the court of appeal and the court of cassation upheld the guilty verdict.\nRepression of Entire Families By the end of the year, more than 70 families in 35 regions of the Russian Federation had become easy prey for law enforcement officers, for whom this is often an easy way to improve their performance and move up the career ladder. In some cases, the husband and wife were sent to prison at the same time, for example, Yelena and Georgiy Nikulin from Saransk. Both received more than 4 years in a penal colony.\n\"Other family members who are not under investigation are also subjected to direct or indirect pressure. After the searches, the security forces interrogate them, threaten to imprison them or a relative if they do not begin to give the investigation the testimony requested against their relative and fellow believers. Simply put, they are invited to become secret agents, to conduct covert audio and video recordings of how believers discuss Bible teachings, pray and sing religious songs together, in order to later call it \"the activity of a banned religious organization,\" says Yaroslav Sivulskiy. \"Another form of indirect pressure on relatives is denying visits to imprisoned family members.\"\nReversal of Acquittals One of the significant trends of 2023 was canceling the acquittals of Jehovah’s Witnesses. This happened on July 6, 2023, with the case of Aleksandr Pryanikov and Venera and Darya Dulova; the case reached the Supreme Court, which overturned the acquittal, although before that the Sverdlovsk Regional Court had twice overturned the guilty verdicts.\nIn the case of Ivan Sorokin and Andrey Zhukov in Yugorsk, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Region, the acquittal was overturned on November 20, 2023.\nDmitriy Barmakin from Vladivostok became the first Russian Jehovah’s Witness to be acquitted in a criminal case for his faith on November 22, 2021. This decision lasted only until April 27, 2023, when the same court, the Pervorechensky District Court of Vladivostok, sentenced the believer to 8 years in a penal colony. However, later, on August 8, 2023, the Primorsky Regional Court overturned this decision and sent the case for review.\nAleksey Khabarov from Porkhov, Pskov Region, who was initially acquitted, was sentenced at the third trial on October 25, 2023, to 2 years and 6 months in a penal colony. The court of appeal reduced the term by only 2 months.\nThe Supreme Court Does Not Comply With Its Own Judgement It seems paradoxical that acquittals of Jehovah’s Witnesses are consistently overturned by the Supreme Court, whose position is that meeting for worship in itself cannot be considered a crime (in the cases of Jehovah’s Witnesses, this is the only corpus delicti). On October 28, 2021, the Plenum of the Supreme Court published a ruling stating: \"If a court adopts a decision, which enters into force, to liquidate or ban the activity of a public or religious association or other organization regarding extremist activity, subsequent actions of persons that are not related to the continuation or resumption of the activity of the relevant extremist organization and consist solely in exercising their right to freedom of conscience and freedom of religion, including through individual or joint practice of religion, meetings for worship or other religious rites and ceremonies, in themselves, if they do not contain signs of extremism, do not constitute a crime\" (emphasis added).\nHowever, in practice, some judges of the Supreme Court do not consider it necessary to follow this position. They simply repeat the prosecution’s narrative that any collective practice of worship by Jehovah’s Witnesses is \"extremist.\"\nIn total, the Supreme Court has already overturned two acquittals of Jehovah’s Witnesses. In addition to the above-mentioned case of Pryanikov and the Dulovs, a similar decision was made on December 15, 2022 in the case of the Bazhenovs and Vera Zolotova.\nJudgments of the European Court of Human Rights On January 31, 2023, the European Court of Human Rights considered seven applications by Jehovah’s Witnesses from Russia relating to events from 2010 to 2014. In all of them, the court sided with the applicants and ordered Russia to pay compensation in the amount of 345,773 euros and another 5,000 euros as legal costs.\nThis is the second judgement of the ECHR in the case of Russian Jehovah’s Witnesses in the last 2 years. In the summer of 2022, the ECHR also exonerated believers in a larger lawsuit related to the illegal liquidation of all legal entities of the Witnesses and the seizure of their property. The total amount of compensation under this decision exceeds 63 million euros.\nAlas, so far the decisions of the ECHR have no visible impact on the practice of the Russian law enforcement system. The Russian authorities are in no hurry to pay compensation to exonerated believers, and continue to sentence them to long prison terms.\nExactly on the day of the decision of the ECHR, June 7, 2022, the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted laws under an accelerated procedure, according to which ECHR judgments issued after March 15, 2022 are not enforceable in Russia.\n\u0026quot;The Case of the Eighteen\u0026quot; in Surgut: Faith is a Crime, Torture is Heroism In 2023, a high-profile case in Surgut approached its conclusion, which received wide publicity because the believers were tortured. The case against 18 men and one woman from Surgut, including a man whom the investigation mistakenly mistook for one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, has been dragging on since February 2019. Seven defendants went through severe torture during interrogation, and one of them, Timofey Zhukov, was forcibly placed in a psychiatric hospital and later obtained compensation for this. The torture in Surgut was widely covered in the Russian media; the believers met with the Human Rights Ombudsman for the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Region and employees of the offices of the Human Rights Ombudsman of the Russian Federation and conferences were held with the participation of human rights defenders.\nIn November 2023, the prosecutor requested harsh terms for the believers \u0026ndash; up to 9.5 years in a penal colony (for Sergey Loginov). On December 5, 2023, all the defendants in the Surgut case were given suspended sentences ranging from 4 to 7 years. Sergey Loginov and Timofey Zhukov were given the longest sentences of 7 years.\nAt the same time, not a single criminal case has been initiated for the torture of the believers. Moreover, later the head of the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee, where Jehovah’s Witnesses were tortured, Vladimir Yermolaev and his subordinate Sergey Bogoderov received awards, and the soldiers of the National Guard of Russia who participated in the operation were rewarded.\n\"Have They Succeeded in Intimidating Jehovah’s Witnesses?\" Sergei Ivanenko, Ph.D. in Philosophy, a religious scholar who attended as an expert at 14 judicial trials against Jehovah’s Witnesses in different regions of Russia, writes his impressions in his book \"The People Who Are Steadfast in Persecution\" published in 2023: \"Jehovah’s Witnesses... consider it their religious responsibility to preach Christianity to law enforcement officials, judges, and also to prisoners... Have they succeeded in intimidating Jehovah’s Witnesses? No, they have not. They continue to preach, to help each other, and to support prisoners of conscience. According to the believers, persecution strengthens their faith in Jehovah, and strong faith brings inner peace... Those who know the history of Jehovah's Witnesses understand that they have endured the most severe persecution and have not forsaken their faith. Nor does persecution in today's Russia frighten them.\"\n","category":"analytics","date":"2023-12-27T13:08:20+02:00","duration":"1:56","image":{"jpg":"/news/2023/12/271308/image2_hu_8ce5188d4fbb9f2c.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2023/12/271308/image2_hu_7d61162a90e88d55.jpg","webp":"/news/2023/12/271308/image2_hu_c30bde6a69fa6960.webp","webp2x":"/news/2023/12/271308/image2_hu_7cb627d2f70ce16.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2023/12/271308.html","regions":[],"subtitle":null,"tags":["search","elderly","disability","video","rosfinmonitoring","medical-rights","siloviks-violence","torture","international","supreme-court","echr","international-community","expert-conclusions","fabrications","statistics","analytics","review"],"title":"Jehovah’s Witnesses Under the Yoke of Repression — 2023 Overview","type":"video"},{"body":"On the morning of April 14, 2023, in the settlements of Lesnoy, Kachkanar and Tayozhny (Sverdlovsk Region), searches were carried out at 5 addresses of believers, including 58-year-old Andrey Bannykh. Earlier, a criminal case was initiated against him as well as Pavel Loshchinin and Andrey Kozhushko, for their faith.\nPavel Loshchinin in his appeal against the decision to initiate a criminal case stated: “The descriptive and motivating part of the resolution contains absolutely no specific argumentation, and there are clearly contradictory arguments... Following religious teaching and studying religious literature is not a crime in itself”.\nAnother suspect in the case, Andrey Bannykh, is one of the applicants whose appeal was granted by the ECHR, declaring the prosecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia illegal. The Court held that “respondent State must take all necessary measures to secure the discontinuation of all pending criminal proceedings against Jehovah’s Witnesses” (§ 290).\n","category":"siloviki","date":"2023-04-14T00:00:00Z","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/common/RIAN_archive_330872_Employees_of_the_Investigating_Committee_of_the_Russian_Prosecutor's_Office_in_Tskhinvali_hu_41c36af83b19be9f.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/common/RIAN_archive_330872_Employees_of_the_Investigating_Committee_of_the_Russian_Prosecutor's_Office_in_Tskhinvali_hu_6ab498ec224abc20.jpg","webp":"/news/common/RIAN_archive_330872_Employees_of_the_Investigating_Committee_of_the_Russian_Prosecutor's_Office_in_Tskhinvali_hu_32d3a14237150a0d.webp","webp2x":"/news/common/RIAN_archive_330872_Employees_of_the_Investigating_Committee_of_the_Russian_Prosecutor's_Office_in_Tskhinvali_hu_c41318f60a005889.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2023/04/191044.html","regions":["sverdlovsk"],"subtitle":"Criminal Proceedings Initiated Against Three Believer","tags":["search","new-case","echr","282.2-1"],"title":"New Searches in the Sverdlovsk Region.","type":"news"},{"body":"Already more than 700 Russian Jehovah's Witnesses have become victims of law enforcement following the 2017 Supreme Court decision. That is how many believers are being prosecuted for their religious beliefs and in the absence of an actual crime.\nAs of March 30, 2023, a total of 333 criminal cases have been filed against Russian Jehovah's Witnesses for their faith. There were 702 persons involved in these cases (one case may involve one or more accused persons). A total of 311 believers have already been sentenced, including 105 who received actual imprisonment, 32 who were fined, and 173 who received suspended sentences. At the moment 122 people are in penal colonies and pre-trial detention centers, and 16 are under house arrest.\nLast year and this year were marked by new harsh sentences for Jehovah's Witnesses, who receive the same sentences for peaceful religious activities as real criminals receive for murder. For example, on March 27, 2023, believer Aleksey Ukhov received six and a half years in prison in Sovetskaya Gavan in Khabarovsk territory; prior to that, he spent over eight months in a pre-trial detention center. The investigation charged the believer with such activities as \"reading prayers ... reading and quoting texts of the Holy Scriptures ... and psalm songs.\"\nIn early 2022, Yevgeny Korotun of Seversk, Tomsk Region, was sentenced to 7 years in prison. This sentence has already passed all instances, including the court of cassation.\nIn December 2022, a court in Crimea sentenced Aleksandr Litvinyuk and Aleksandr Dubovenko to 6 years in prison. In Chita, three believers will spend from 6 to 6.5 years behind bars, father of four children Konstantin Sannikov from Kazan - 6.5 years, and Dmitriy Malevany from Primorye Territory - 7 years. These are just some of the most recent examples of the multitude.\nRussian courts continue to send not only men but also women to prison. On March 27, 2023, the court of cassation finalized the case of Lyudmila Shchekoldina from the Krasnodar Territory. The woman received four years and one month in prison for \"describing the attractiveness of serving Jehovah\" (!). Lyudmila is one of four women currently serving time in a penal colony for believing in Jehovah's God.\nRussian courts continue to send seriously ill people with disabilities, including those who cannot be there for medical reasons, to prison. For example, Andrey Vlasov, who suffers from a complex of serious illnesses, can barely move and has difficulty maintaining himself, received a 7-year prison sentence. Courts of all instances ignored the fact that his illnesses are on the government-approved list of illnesses that prohibit a convicted person from being in a penal colony.\nAgainst the background of what is happening, the position of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation looks ironic. In 2021, the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation ruled that worship services by Jehovah's Witnesses do not constitute a crime by itself, but that the court must in each specific case identify the actual unlawful acts of the defendants. Despite this, on March 14, 2023, the same court reversed the acquittal verdict against three believers from Sverdlovsk region, in whose actions three courts had found no evidence of extremism.\nA similar decision was made by the Supreme Court in the case of three believers from Kamchatka, in the presence of the media and diplomats from six countries.\nOn June 7, 2022 the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued a historic ruling that completely acquitted Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. The ruling was handed down simultaneously on 20 complaints filed by Russian believers. The court ruled that liquidating their legal entities, seizing their property, and banning their publications was illegal; it also ruled that the believers be discharged from prison and that they be paid compensation ranging from 1,000 to 15,000 euros each.\nAlthough the Russian authorities are in no hurry to comply with the ECHR's demands, the court's lengthy ruling (the Russian translation is 208 pages long) has once again made it clear that persecution of believers has no legal basis. \"The courts have not found [in the cases of the two dissolved religious organisations] a single word, act or deed of the applicants motivated by violence, hatred or discrimination against others or tinged with violence, hatred or discrimination,\" reads the ECtHR judgment (§ 271).\n\"The decisions to declare the publications 'extremist' and to liquidate the religious organisations of Jehovah's Witnesses were based on an unpredictable application of anti-extremism legislation,\" the court concluded (§ 282).\n","category":"analytics","date":"2023-03-30T16:03:51+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2023/03/301603/image_hu_fbf1d3f5c02df8d0.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2023/03/301603/image_hu_6b2fcdcf64146d0b.jpg","webp":"/news/2023/03/301603/image_hu_78ca61be9e4ee16f.webp","webp2x":"/news/2023/03/301603/image_hu_94f4a601959159cd.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2023/03/301603.html","regions":["moscow"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["analytics","review","statistics","elderly","disability","echr","liberty-deprivation"],"title":"There are Already 700 Victims of a Legal Collision. Men, Women, and Disabled Persecuted for Peaceful Religious Belief","type":"news"},{"body":"On January 31, 2023, the European Court of Human Rights published a ruling in which it found that the disruption of worship services, searches in worship buildings, and seizure of religious literature were violations of the rights of believers. The Russian authorities are ordered to compensate for the damage caused.\n","date":"2023-01-31T00:00:00Z","permalink":"/en/docs/967.html","regions":["france"],"tags":["echr"],"title":"Judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Nabokikh and Others v. the Russian Federation (application No. 19428/11 and 6 others)","type":"docs"},{"body":"On January 31, 2023, the European Court of Human Rights, having considered seven complaints from Jehovah's Witnesses from Russia, recognized the disruption of worship services from 2010 to 2014 as a violation of fundamental freedoms. The ECHR ruled to pay compensation to the applicants in the amount of 345,773 EUR and another 5,000 EUR as legal costs.\nWhat Happened?\nThis case concerns the disruption of religious meetings in 17 regions of Russia, as well as searches, confiscation of literature and personal belongings, and several cases of detention with personal searches.\nLaw enforcement officers, sometimes armed and wearing masks, would brake into the buildings where worship services of Jehovah's Witnesses were being conducted. The actions of law enforcement officers were justified by technicalities, for example, by the fact that the meetings were organized without prior notice to the authorities. The security forces either demanded that the event be stopped or remained on the premises and filmed what was happening using photo and video equipment, after which they interrogated those present.\nOn several occasions, police raided places of worship, including private residences. The search warrants did not provide specific grounds. They only stated that the buildings may contain \"evidence relevant to the criminal case.\"\n“The applicants unsuccessfully pleaded with [the police] to postpone the search until after the end of the religious services.” Several similar cases are described in the ECHR decision (§ 4).\nThe victims appealed against the actions of the security forces in local courts, but their demands were not satisfied.\nECHR Decision\nThe European Court concluded that the actions of the Russian authorities violated Article 9 of the Convention on Human Rights, which declares the fundamental right to participate in peaceful religious assemblies.\nHere are excerpts from the judgment of the ECHR.\n“The disruption of a religious assembly by the authorities and sanctioning of the applicants for holding ‘unauthorized’ religious events amounts to ‘interference by a public authority’ with the applicants’ right to manifest their religion.” (§ 9)\n“The Court has previously noted the consistent case-law of Russia’s Supreme Court that religious meetings, even those conducted on rented premises, did not require prior authorization from, or notice to, the authorities . . . [the applicants'] conviction did not have a clear . . . legal basis and was not ‘prescribed by law.’” (§ 10)\n“It is undisputed that all religious assemblies were peaceful in their nature and were not likely to cause any disturbance or danger to the public order. Their disruption . . . did not pursue a ‘pressing social need’ and therefore not ‘necessary in a democratic society.’” (§·11)\n“The Court finds that the search warrants had been couched in extremely broad terms . . . They did not specify why the particular premises were targeted, what it was that the police expected to find there and what relevant and sufficient reasons justified the need to conduct the search.” (§·12)\nWhat Does the Decision of the European Court Mean?\nAlthough the cases reviewed by the ECHR dealt with events prior to the ban on Russian legal entities of Jehovah's Witnesses in 2017, hundreds of criminal cases filed since then have treated the joint discussion of the Holy Scriptures as a crime.\nYaroslav Sivulskiy, representative of the European Association of Jehovah’s Witnesses, commented on the decision of the ECHR: “The ECHR once again emphasized that there is not and cannot be anything extremist in the religious meetings of Jehovah's Witnesses. The same was recognized by the Plenum of the Supreme Court of Russia; however, some Russian courts continue to act contrary to these rulings, putting Jehovah’s Witnesses behind bars merely because of their religion.”\nMore than 60 applications from those who suffered from the repressive campaign against Russian Jehovah's Witnesses are awaiting the European Court's decision.\nIn June 2022, the European Court of Human Rights recognized the liquidation of legal entities of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia as illegal and demanded that the criminal prosecution of believers be stopped and that all those imprisoned for their faith be released.\n","category":"victory","date":"2022-12-31T17:59:10+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2019/10/1268/image_hu_bef00bf20962b44e.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2019/10/1268/image_hu_19500d295c944042.jpg","webp":"/news/2019/10/1268/image_hu_7061905fe753f9ea.webp","webp2x":"/news/2019/10/1268/image_hu_aac3c5ccb8a11a3f.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2023/02/031759.html","regions":["moscow"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["echr","compensation","analytics","review","meetings-disruption"],"title":"The ECHR Ordered Russia to Pay About 350,000 EUR for Disrupting the Religious Meetings of Jehovah's Witnesses","type":"news"},{"body":"Updated January 24, 2023. All data updated as of December 31, 2022.\nIn 2022, the ECHR declared the 2017 ban on Jehovah's Witnesses illegal. However, the repression not only did not weaken, but also updated records: in 2022, the courts sentenced 44 believers to a total of 244 years in prison (a year earlier, the figure was 160 years in prison). Other sad records were also recorded: the number of convictions, as well as the number of believers who are simultaneously in colonies and pre-trial detention centers.\nHow many people were repressed for their faith in 2022? As of December 31, 2022, 674 followers of the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses are officially in the status of accused, suspected, indicted, convicted, or acquitted. Of these, 77 learned about the criminal prosecution in 2022. (In 2019, this figure was 213, in 2020 146, and in 2021 - 142.) The total number of criminal cases reached 319 (most often 2 or more defendants in one case).\nWhat is the geographical scope of repression for faith? Criminal cases against Jehovah's Witnesses have already been initiated in 72 regions of Russia. In 2022, cases were initiated in 2 new regions of Russia - Altai and Buryatia. (In 2019, criminal prosecution of Jehovah's Witnesses was initiated in 21 new regions of Russia, in 2020 in 8 new regions, and in 2021 in 10.)\nHow many convictions for faith were handed down in 2022, and how many have gone into effect? During 2022, 119 believers were found guilty under Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and sentenced by the courts of first instance to various punishments. (In 2019, this figure was 18, and in 2020 it was 39, in 2021 it was 111.) Of these, 57 people are still awaiting the decision of the appeal. With regard to 108 believers, appeals were held during 2022 and the sentences entered into force. In some cases, the punishment was mitigated or toughened, but most often it remained unchanged.\nIn total, as of December 31, 2022, 284 male and female Jehovah's Witnesses have been convicted for their faith in the past 5 years.\nWhat sentences were handed down to Jehovah's Witnesses in 2022? In total, during 2022, 44 believers were sentenced to real imprisonment, which is a sad record (in 2021, 32 believers were sentenced to real imprisonment). The duration of the punishment has also been toughened: in 2022, the average term in a colony imposed on believers was 5.5 years, while in 2021 this average figure was 5.0 years. For 6 years or more, 35 out of 44 believers were sent to a penal colony. In addition, 62 believers were conditionally sentenced to imprisonment (68 in 2021), 12 people were fined (10 in 2021) and 1 person was sentenced to 4 years of correctional labor. The most inhuman is the sentence of 7 years in prison imposed on Andrei Vlasov, a disabled person who cannot do without assistance. Due to strict restrictions in one of the correctional facilities, he developed soft tissue necrosis (bedsores), which he tries to cure.\nIn 2022, the acquittal of the believer handed down in 2021 was overturned on appeal. In addition, during 2022, 3 acquittals were issued – to three believers in the case of the Bazhenovs and others in Yelizovo (however, this verdict was overturned at the stage of the 2nd cassation in the Supreme Court of Russia), one believer in the case of Khabarov in Porkhov (however, this sentence was overturned on appeal) and three believers in the case of Pryanikov and others in Karpinsk (however, these believers are heard in court another criminal case for faith).\nHow many Jehovah's Witnesses have passed through temporary detention facilities, pre-trial detention centers or colonies, and how many are still being held there. In 2022, the number of Jehovah's Witnesses who are simultaneously in Russian colonies and pre-trial detention exceeded 100 for the first time. As of December 31, 2022, 113 people remain behind bars. (A year ago, this figure was 76 people; in December 2020, 44 people; in December 2019, exactly the same number was in jail - 44 people.)\nA total of 368 believers have been or remain behind bars since May 2017. In 2022, having served his sentence in full, having actually spent 5 years in a pre-trial detention center and a colony, the first convicted Jehovah's Witness, Dennis Christensen, was released and expelled from the country . In addition, Valentina Baranovskaya, the oldest believer at that time, who was sentenced to real imprisonment, was released from the colony on parole. While under investigation, the woman suffered a stroke. Her son, who was convicted for his faith with her, remains behind bars. As of December 31, 2022, there are still 19 Jehovah's Witnesses over the age of 60 in prisons. The oldest of them, 71-year-old Boris Andreev from the village of Yaroslavsky (Primorye Territory), was sent to a pre-trial detention center in July 2022. 70-year-old Vilen Avanesov has been behind bars for more than 3.5 years.\nHow many searches have been conducted in the homes of Jehovah's Witnesses? Since the decision to liquidate registered Jehovah's Witnesses organizations came into force, at least 1876 searches have been conducted in their homes. Of these, 203 searches were carried out in 40 settlements of Russia in 2022. (In 2019, the number of searches was 489 in 75 settlements, in 2020 - 447 in 81 settlements, in 2021 - 382 in 82 settlements.) The largest special operations against Jehovah's Witnesses in 2022 were carried out in Novorossiysk and 5 nearby villages (30 searches in 1 day), in Rybinsk (16), in Simferopol (16), in Chelyabinsk (13), in Novocherkassk (10). A search is a significant restriction of a person's constitutional right to privacy, personal and family secrets, honor, and good name.\nChronicle of the incursions into the homes of Jehovah's Witnesses in 2022:\n16.01.2022 Gorno-Altaisk (Altai Republic): 5 searches carried out 01/28/2022 Krasnodar (Krasnodar Territory): 3 searches carried out 06.02.2022 Moskvoretskaya Sloboda (Moscow Region): 1 search was conducted 13.02.2022 Vyselki (Krasnodar Territory): 13 searches carried out 13.02.2022 Novorossiysk (Krasnodar Territory): 9 searches carried out 13.02.2022 Zhuravskaya (Krasnodar Territory): 2 searches carried out 13.02.2022 Berezanskaya (Krasnodar Territory): 4 searches carried out 13.02.2022 Buzinovskaya (Krasnodar Territory): 1 search was conducted 02/13/2022 Novodonetska (Krasnodar Territory): 1 search was conducted 18.02.2022 Vyselki (Krasnodar Territory): 1 search was conducted 25.02.2022 Pregradnaya (Karachay-Cherkess Republic): 1 search was conducted 04.03.2022 Tolyatti (Samara Region): 2 searches carried out 15.03.2022 Kostroma (Kostroma region): 4 searches carried out 16.03.2022 Kazan (Republic of Tatarstan): 1 search was conducted 03/18/2022 Kazan (Republic of Tatarstan): 3 searches conducted 22.03.2022 Maikop (Republic of Adygea): 1 search was conducted 03/23/2022 Balakovo (Saratov Region): 8 searches carried out 23.03.2022 Chelyabinsk (Chelyabinsk Region): 1 search was conducted 29.03.2022 Sosnovoborsk (Krasnoyarsk Territory): 4 searches carried out 06.04.2022 Kazan (Republic of Tatarstan): 2 searches conducted 15.04.2022 Yoshkar-Ola (Republic of Mari El): 8 searches carried out 15.04.2022 Nizhny Novgorod (Nizhny Novgorod Region): 1 search was conducted 19.04.2022 Maikop (Republic of Adygea): 1 search was conducted 04/25/2022 Maikop (Republic of Adygea): 1 search was conducted 26.04.2022 Maikop (Republic of Adygea): 3 searches carried out 05/19/2022 Yaroslavl (Yaroslavl Region): 2 searches carried out 05/24/2022 Komsomolsk-on-Amur (Khabarovsk Territory): 1 search was conducted 29.05.2022 Sharypovo (Krasnoyarsk Territory): 4 searches carried out 06/07/2022 Asha (Chelyabinsk Region): 1 search was conducted 14.06.2022 Baley (Trans-Baikal Territory): 4 searches carried out 16.06.2022 Kopeysk (Chelyabinsk Region): 1 search was conducted 07.07.2022 Surgut (Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug): 5 searches carried out 13.07.2022 Rybinsk (Yaroslavl Region): 16 searches carried out 07/27/2022 Rybinsk (Yaroslavl Region): 1 search was conducted 05.08.2022 Sevastopol (Sevastopol): 1 search was conducted 11.08.2022 Novocherkassk (Rostov Region): 10 searches carried out 11.08.2022 Unecha (Bryansk region): 2 searches carried out 24.08.2022 Sevastopol (Sevastopol): 2 searches carried out 08.09.2022 Chelyabinsk (Chelyabinsk Region): 13 searches carried out 21.09.2022 Tolyatti (Samara Region): 2 searches carried out 28.09.2022 Krasnogvardeyskoye (Crimea): 11 searches carried out 06.10.2022 Yaroslavsky (Primorye Territory): 12 searches carried out 10/14/2022 Rybinsk (Yaroslavl Region): 1 search was conducted 17.10.2022 Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (Kamchatka Territory): 4 searches carried out 20.10.2022 Maikop (Republic of Adygea): 3 searches carried out 10/27/2022 Krasnoznamensk (Moscow Region): 1 search was conducted 09.11.2022 Ivanovo (Ivanovo Region): 3 searches carried out 11/18/2022 Tavrichanka (Primorye Territory): 1 search was conducted 06.12.2022 Feodosiya (Crimea): 1 search was conducted 08.12.2022 Simferopol (Crimea): 16 searches carried out 14.12.2022 Izhevsk (Udmurt Republic): 2 searches carried out 26.12.2022 Ussuriysk (Primorye Territory): 1 search was conducted What steps did the authorities take in 2022 to end the repression of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia? On February 22, 2022, the European Court of Human Rights published judgments in the cases of Cheprunov and Others v. Russia (74320/10) and Zharinova v. Russia (17715/12), in which it found that Russian authorities had violated the right to freedom of religion of Jehovah's Witnesses when they detained them while talking about the Bible or searched their homes.\nOn June 7, 2022, the ECHR declared illegal the liquidation of all 396 legal entities of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia in 2017, the ban on their activities and the seizure of property; ban on printed publications and the official website. The judgment was made in the case of \"MRO Taganrog and Others v. Russia\" (No. 32401/10). Russia is obliged to pay the applicants 3 million euros for non-material damage, as well as to return the seized property or pay 59 million euros for it. Although Russia ceased to be a member of the Council of Europe in March 2022, in terms of international law, it is obliged to comply with the decisions of the ECHR issued before September 16, 2022, as the Secretary General of the Council of Europe reminded the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia in a letter dated December 9, 2022.\n","category":"analytics","date":"2022-12-23T10:57:06+02:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2022/12/231054/image_hu_4115e55caface6d1.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2022/12/231054/image_hu_ff56bb181df39e59.jpg","webp":"/news/2022/12/231054/image_hu_7172027fc39bb12.webp","webp2x":"/news/2022/12/231054/image_hu_90ddfd148d6458f3.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2022/12/231054.html","regions":[],"subtitle":null,"tags":["analytics","review","statistics","echr","new-case","282.2-2","liberty-deprivation","acquittal","sizo","search","suspended","fine","labor","appeal"],"title":"Jehovah's Witnesses are under the yoke of repression. Results of 2022","type":"news"},{"body":"Andrey Perminov submits a petition for a repeated comprehensive religious psychological and linguistic examination in a state institution. The court rejects it, and also does not accept the arguments of the defense about the disqualification of experts from Chelyabinsk State University. The lawyer reads out the positive characteristics of Andrey Perminov from the district and local public organization of the disabled.\nThe defense proposes to partially investigate the telephone conversations recorded during the ORM: according to the lawyer, some points are deciphered incorrectly, which is why the experts drew the wrong conclusions. The court postpones the examination of the records to the next hearing.\nFurther, the lawyer submits a petition to attach to the case file the decision of the ECHR \"LRO of Taganrog and Others v. Russia\". The prosecutor asks for time to familiarize himself with this voluminous document.\n","caseTitle":"Case of Perminov in Asha","date":"2022-09-21T00:00:00Z","permalink":"/en/cases/asha/index.html#20220921","regions":["chelyabinsk"],"tags":["first-instance","studies-violations","echr"],"type":"timeline"},{"body":"On August 2, 2022, a translation of the ECHR judgment in the case of the LRO of Taganrog and Others v. Russia was notarized in Russia. The ECHR issued a historic ruling in favor of Jehovah's Witnesses, ruling that their persecution in Russia was illegal.\nThe following conclusions of the European Court of Justice, while made in the ruling against Russia, apply throughout the entire Council of Europe, where there are 2.8 million people who attend worship services of Jehovah's Witnesses. In the ruling, the court assessed the charges that circulate among those who are prejudiced against this religion. Here are a few quotes.\nAre the charges of extremism justified? “The Court reiterates that only religious statements and actions involving or calling for violence, hatred or discrimination may warrant suppression as being “extremist”. … The courts did not identify any word, deed or action by the applicants which would be motivated or tainted by violence, hatred or discrimination against others.” — §271.\nIs it against the law to believe in the truth of one's religion? “Peacefully seeking to convince others of the superiority of one’s own religion and urging them to abandon “false religions” and join the “true one” is a legitimate form of exercise of the right to freedom of religion and freedom of expression which enjoys the protection under Articles 9 and 10 of the Convention.” —§156.\nShould one be punished for refusing a blood transfusion? \"the refusal of blood transfusion was an expression of free will of a community member exercising her right to personal autonomy in the sphere of health care protected both under the Convention and in Russian law.\" —§165.\nIs conscientious objection to military service a crime? \" The religious admonishment to refuse military service did not break any Russian laws and the Jehovah’s Witnesses were entitled to seek to persuade others that they should prefer alternative civilian service instead of taking up weapons.\" —§169.\nIs there anything illegal about religious texts? \" Both the applicants’ religious activities and the content of their publications appear to have been peaceful in line with their professed doctrine of non-violence. … Not one of the banned publications was found to contain calls or incitement to violence or any insulting, slanderous or discriminatory statements against members of other faiths.\" —§157.\nHow should the practice of blocking entire websites be viewed? \"The Court has found above that the decision to declare the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ religious publications “extremist” disclosed a violation of the Convention. This finding applies to the publications, brochures and magazines which had been referenced in the request for a blocking order. However, even if there had been exceptional circumstances justifying the blocking of unlawful content, the measure blocking access to the entire website would have needed a justification of its own… and by reference to the criteria established by the Court under Article 10 of the Convention. Blocking access to legitimate content can never be an automatic consequence of another, more restricted blocking measure because indiscriminate blocking measure – interfering as it does with lawful content as a collateral effect of a measure aimed solely at illegal content – amounts to arbitrary interference with the rights of website owners.\" —§231.\nAs a result, the ECHR concluded that from the point of view of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the ban on the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia in 2017, as well as the publications and website, was unlawful. The Court ruled that the respondent state must take all necessary measures to stop the criminal prosecution of Jehovah's Witnesses and release those of them who are imprisoned, as well as return the confiscated property from legal entities or pay compensation in the amount of 59,617,458 euros. In addition, the believers' claims for moral damages totaling 3,447,250 euros were satisfied.\n","category":"victory","date":"2022-08-15T14:10:59+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2022/08/151410/image_hu_3efac30db4320492.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2022/08/151410/image_hu_ad78c593ce6921f9.jpg","webp":"/news/2022/08/151410/image_hu_93839831565ccfac.webp","webp2x":"/news/2022/08/151410/image_hu_d87ccde8040c3fdd.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2022/08/151410.html","regions":["france","moscow","rostov"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["echr","international"],"title":"The Russian Translation of the ECHR Judgment That Fully Vindicated Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia Is Published","type":"news"},{"body":"On June 7, 2022, the ECHR declared illegal the liquidation of the administrative center and another 395 legal entities of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, the ban on their activities and the seizure of property; prohibition of printed publications and the official website; In addition, the court decided to stop the criminal prosecution of believers, and to release the prisoners.\n","date":"2022-07-07T00:00:00Z","permalink":"/en/docs/206.html","regions":["france"],"tags":["echr"],"title":"Judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of LRO Taganrog and Others v. the Russian Federation (application No. 32401/10)","type":"docs"},{"body":"The inclusion of Jehovah's Witnesses publications in the extremist list was the foundation for the subsequent ban of activities and criminal prosecution of believers. In June 2022, the European Court of Human Rights issued a ruling in which it thoroughly analyzed all the logical and legal errors made by Russian courts.\nIs it allowed to consider one's religion to be the only true one? According to the Russian government's explanation to the ECHR, \"a local religious organization in Taganrog was engaged in illegal activities, including the distribution of printed materials proclaiming the superiority of their religion over others\" (paragraph 144 of the ruling). This is the court assessment of the ECHR:\nParagraph 153: \"... Preference for one's own religion, \"perception\" of it as unique and the only true one... is the cornerstone of almost any religious system, as is the evaluation of other faiths as 'false,' 'wrong,' or 'unsaving.'\" (\"... Preference for one's own religion, the perception of it as unique and the only true one... is a cornerstone of almost any religious system, as is the assessment of the other faiths as \"false\", \"wrong\" or \"not conducive to salvation.\")\nParagraph 153: \"In the absence of expressions that seek to incite or justify violence or hatred based on religious intolerance, any religious entity or individual believers have the right to proclaim and defend their doctrine as the true and superior one and to engage in religious disputes and criticism seeking to prove the truth of one's own and the falsity of others' dogmas or beliefs.\nParagraph 156: \"Even accepting that the texts promoted the idea that it was better to be a Jehovah's Witness than a member of another Christian denomination, it is significant that the texts did not insult, hold up to ridicule or slander non-Witnesses.\"\nParagraph 200: \"...No elements of violence, hatred, abuse, insults, ridicule or calls for anyone's exclusion or discrimination have been identified in any of the publications.”\nIs it correct to regard criticism as \"incitement to hatred\"? \"The Regional Court [in Russia] referred to statements by two Orthodox priests and five Orthodox believers who claimed to have been offended by the Witnesses' criticism of Orthodoxy\" (par 18). The ECHR assessed this situation as follows:\nParagraph 154: “Religious people may be genuinely offended by claims of the superiority of another's religion over their own. However, the fact that individuals or groups of people may perceive criticism as an insult does not mean that it constitutes ‘hate speech’\nParagraph 156: \"Peacefully seeking to convince others of the superiority of one's own religion and urging them to abandon 'false religions' and join the 'true one' is a legitimate form of exercise of the right to freedom of religion and freedom of expression which enjoys the protection under Articles 9 and 10 of the Convention.\"\n\"Incitement to hatred\" - in whom and to whom? The European Court considered the allegations of incitement to religious hatred to be speculative and unsubstantiated. This is the conclusion reached by the ECHR:\nParagraph 200: \"Although the Jehovah's Witnesses' publications have been widely available in many countries for decades, including in Russia, the Government has not submitted any evidence that they have caused interreligious tensions or led to any harmful consequences or violence, in Russia or elsewhere.” Paragraph 157: “Both the applicants’ religious activities and the content of their publications appear to have been peaceful in line with their professed doctrine of non-violence.”\nParagraph 200: \"There is no indication that the domestic courts perceived the texts in question as capable of leading to public disturbances or unrest.”\nWhat was wrong with the expertise on which the court relied? The Russian courts based their decisions on the conclusions of experts invited by the prosecution. How did the European Court regard this?\nParagraph 203: \"Expert conclusions ... go beyond addressing purely specialist issues, such as clarifying the import or meaning of particular words and expressions, and provide what is in effect a legal assessment of publications. The Court has found that situation unacceptable and stressed that all issues of law should be determined exclusively by judges.\"\nParagraph 204: \"The courts limited their analysis to reproducing a summary of findings by expert witnesses which they endorsed in their entirety without drawing any legal conclusions from them, stating simply that they had no reason to doubt them.\"\nParagraph 204: \"It is apparent from the judgments that it was not the court that made the decisive findings as to the 'extremist' nature of the Jehovah's Witnesses publications but the experts selected by the prosecutors and police.\" Did the believers have an opportunity to defend their publications in court? After examining the applicants' complaints ECHR concluded as follows:\nParagraph 205: \"They also failed to uphold the adversarial nature of the proceedings. Some applicants were unable to effectively put forward arguments in defence of their position, as the courts rejected their evidence, including alternative expert opinions.\"\nParagraph 205: \"Other applicants had not been even informed of the banning proceedings and denied the possibility to challenge the first-instance judgment by way of appeal.\"\nIs it possible to predict that the publication will or will not be recognized as extremist in Russia?\" ... Decisions to classify Jehovah's Witnesses publications as \"extremist\"... were based on an arbitrarily broad definition of 'extremist activity' in Russian law\" (par. 270). This is the problem, according to the ECHR, that this creates in society:\nParagraph 158: \"This is a broad definition of 'extremism'... deprived individuals or organizations of the opportunity to foresee that their behavior, however peaceful and devoid of hatred or hostility, could be classified as 'extremist' and subject to restrictions\". (\"That broad definition of \"extremism\"... prevented individuals or organisations from being able to anticipate that their conduct, however peaceful and devoid of hatred or animosity it was, could be categorised as \"extremist\" and censured with restrictive measures.\")\nParagraph 201: \"This sweeping definition enabled the Russian authorities to restrict the distribution of non-violent religious publications but also prevented publishers and users of the publications to anticipate, on account of its lacking the necessary precision, which publications could be categorized as 'extremist' and banned on that account.”\nThe only grounds for liquidation and prohibition of all Jehovah's Witnesses organizations in Russia, confiscation of their property, criminal prosecution of over 600 believers and sentences of up to eight years in prison were the inclusion of their publications in the list of extremist materials. The fact that the European Court deemed this inclusion unlawful deprives all the persecution of the followers of this religion that has been unfolding in Russia of grounds.\n","category":"victory","date":"2022-06-17T11:14:36+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2022/06/171114/image_hu_b38e7d752dd7df35.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2022/06/171114/image_hu_1a7be55a9af7cb80.jpg","webp":"/news/2022/06/171114/image_hu_bb6332b10374f223.webp","webp2x":"/news/2022/06/171114/image_hu_5413e61e85cb47e0.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2022/06/171114.html","regions":["rostov","moscow","france"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["echr","review","analytics","international"],"title":"ECHR Considered Why Jehovah's Witnesses Were Declared Extremists and Explained Why This Was Illegal. Key Quotes","type":"news"},{"body":"On June 7, 2022, the ECHR declared illegal liquidation of the administrative center and another 395 legal entities of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, the ban on their activities and the seizure of property; prohibition of printed publications and the official website; In addition, the court decided to stop the criminal prosecution of believers, and to release the prisoners. The decision was issued in the case “Taganrog LRO and others v. Russia”, in which a total of 20 complaints filed by Jehovah's Witnesses from 2010 to 2019 were combined. The total number of applicants is 1444, of which 1014 are individuals and 430 are legal entities (some applicants appear in more than one complaint). According to the ruling, in total, Russian Federation is obliged to pay the applicants EUR 3,447,250 in respect of non-pecuniary damage and to return the seized property (or pay EUR 59,617,458).\nBy its actions, Russia violated the provisions of several articles of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms: right of personal freedom (Article 5), freedom of thought, conscience and religion (Article 9), freedom of expression (Article 10) and freedom of assembly and association (Article 11). In addition, Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 (the right to respect for property) was violated.\nYaroslav Sivulsky of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses said: “We are grateful to the Strasbourg Court for its authoritative qualified legal understanding of the unprecedented situation that has developed in Russia with Jehovah's Witnesses. We hope that today's ruling will help the Russian authorities to restore the rule of law and rights in relation to more than 175,000 believers of our religion in the near future.\"\nThe following is a brief history of all 20 complaints on which this ruling was made.\nTaganrog LRO and Others v. Russia (complaint 32401/10). In January 2007, by order of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, the Rostov Regional Prosecutor's Office in cooperation with the FSB initiated shutdown of the Jehovah's Witnesses LRO in Taganrog (Rostov region). As a result, on September 11, 2009, the Rostov Regional Court ruled to liquidate the LRO, ban its activities, declare 34 publications extremist and confiscate its property. On December 8, 2009, the Supreme Court rejected the appeal in a summary fashion. On June 1, 2010, the case was filed with the ECHR.\nAdministrative Centre of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and Kalin v. Russia (Complaint 10188/17). On March 2, 2016, the Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation issued an official warning to the \"Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia\" with the requirement to stop \"extremist\" activities under threat of liquidation. Relying on the opinion that the Administrative Center had \"systematically violated\" the law on extremism by importing, storing, and distributing banned literature, the Ministry of Justice asked the Russian Supreme Court to liquidate the Administrative Center and 395 local religious organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses throughout Russia, as well as to confiscate their property. On July 17, 2017, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court upheld the liquidation decision. The Administrative Center and its representative Vasily Kalin filed a complaint with the ECHR against the Russian Federation.\nGlazov LRO and Others v. Russia (Complaint 3215/18). On January 15, 2018, 395 local religious organizations (LRO) of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia filed a complaint with the ECHR against the discriminatory decision of the Russian Supreme Court of April 20, 2017. All Jehovah's Witnesses organizations in the country were automatically declared extremist, liquidated, and property confiscated. (See Administrative Centre of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and Kalin v. Russia.) The applicants also pointed to the failure of the national courts to ensure their effective participation in the proceedings.\nSamara LRO and Others v. Russia (Complaint 15962/15). In January 2014, police officers, under the guise of checking the electric grid, inspected a building rented by Jehovah's Witnesses in Samara for worship meetings. When they returned unmasked, they went straight to the dressing room they had previously inspected and \"found\" several books deemed extremist. On March 7, 2014, the Sovetskiy District Court fined the local religious organization (LRO) with 50 thousand rubles for \"possession\" of these publications. The Samara Regional Court approved this decision, and then on May 29, 2014, recognized the LRO as an extremist organization and liquidated it. On November 12, 2014, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation concisely considered the believers' appeal and upheld the decision. Representatives of the LRO appealed to the ECHR on March 31, 2015.\nKravchuk and Others v. Russia (Complaint 2861/15). In August 2013, the Tsentralny District Court of Tver declared Jehovah's Witnesses’ website, jw.org, extremist. The owner of the site, the Watchtower, Bible and Tract Society (New York), was not involved in the trial, which violated his rights. In January 2014, Tver Regional Court overturned the decision of the lower court. However, on an appeal by the deputy prosecutor general, the Supreme Court upheld the decision to ban the site. Internet service providers across the country blocked access to the site. Russia is the only country in the world where jw.org is banned. In January 2015, the Administration Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, as well as Oleg Kravchuk and nine other believers who are readers of the site, filed a complaint with the ECHR.\nGorno-Altaysk LRO and Others v. Russia (complaint 44285/10). On December 22, 2008, the prosecutor filed a petition with the Gorno-Altaisk City Court to declare 27 religious publications by Jehovah's Witnesses extremist. The court ordered a comprehensive psycholinguistic religious examination of these publications, without any expert in the field of religious studies taking part in the study. As a result, on October 1, 2009, the court declared 18 publications extremist. Earlier in June of the same year law enforcement officers searched Jehovah's Witnesses place of worship in Gorno-Altaisk as well as believers' homes. During the searches, religious literature and personal possessions were confiscated. Gorno-Altaisk Jehovah's Witnesses LRO appealed, but on January 27, 2010, the Altai Republic Supreme Court rejected the appeal, upholding the decision of the city court. Later, on July 23 of the same year, the case was filed with the ECHR.\nChukan and Others v. Russia (complaint 2269/12) . On March 11, 2009, the prosecutor of Krasnodar Territory applied to court with the requirement to declare extremist four publications of Jehovah's Witnesses that were allegedly found in the city park as. Linguist from Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for Krasnodar Territory considered the content of publications to be inadmissible, and on April 22, 2011, Pervomaiskiy District Court of Krasnodar acknowledged four publications to be extremist. This happened despite the fact that Rostov Regional Court had earlier ruled three of them not to contain any extremist elements in the text. In August 2011 the Krasnodar regional court rejected the believers' appeal, upholding the decision. Vasiliy Chukan and Aleksandr Tkachenko, Jehovah's Witnesses from Krasnodar, as well as the local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses in Krasnodar, the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, and German and American publishers filed a complaint with the ECHR.\nZinich and Others v. Russia (complaint 74387/13). In 2012, FSB requested the prosecutor office to file a petition to a court to declare the book What Does the Bible Really Teach (2009) extremist. The court granted that request. On May 20, 2013, the Krasnoyarsk Territory Court rejected the appeal of the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia against this decision. In this regard, a believer from Krasnoyarsk, Maria Zinich, as well as the German publishing house that issued the publication and the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia filed a complaint with the ECHR.\nVerish and Others v. Russia (complaint 79240/13). The Prosecutor of the Sovetskiy District of Krasnoyarsk went to court, asking to declare one of brochures extremist. On January 24, 2013, the Sovetskiy District Court satisfied this demand. Aleksey Verish and six other believers were denied the appeal, as they were not interested parties. The court also rejected an appeal from the publishing house, considering the ownership of copyright unproven. In July 2013, Administration Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia managed to appeal the decision, but the Krasnoyarsk Territory Court and then the cassation instance upheld the original verdict. On December 11, 2013, the believers appealed to the ECHR.\nNovikov and Others v. Russia (Complaint 28108/14). On November 2, 2011, the prosecutor appealed to the Uspenskiy District Court of Krasnodar Territory to declare the religious book of Jehovah's Witnesses extremist. Psychological and linguistic expertise found no signs of extremism in the book. However, at the request of the prosecutor, the publication was sent for reexamination to other experts who found signs of extremism in it. On June 19, 2013, the District Court satisfied the prosecutor's request and decided to confiscate the book. In doing so, it relied solely on the findings of the second expert report and the opinion of an Orthodox priest heard at the prosecutor's request. The LRO of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Uspenskiy District, the German and American publishers of Jehovah's Witness literature, and three believers Novikov, Baylo, and Kalinin from Krasnodar Territory and Nizhny Novgorod filed an appeal. On October 8, 2013, the Krasnodar Territory Court rejected it, and the case went to the ECHR on April 4, 2014.\n\"LRO of Jehovah's Witnesses in Birobidzhan and Aliyev v. Russian Federation\", (Birobidzhan LRO and Aliyev v. Russia). In October 2013, the Leninskiy District Court of Vladimir declared two publications of Jehovah's Witnesses extremist without notifying the representatives of the religious organization. A similar decision on one of these publications 2 months earlier was made by the Birobidzhan District Court of the Jewish Autonomous Region. Alam Aliyev and the LRO of Jehovah's Witnesses in Birobidzhan successfully appealed against it in the court of the Autonomous Region. But a month later, in May 2014, the deputy prosecutor of Birobidzhan made an official demand to stop distributing the brochure, referring to the decision of the Vladimir court. Believers in Birobidzhan tried to appeal because they were not notified of the decision and could not challenge it in a timely manner. The Leninsky District Court of Vladimir refused to restore the terms of the appeal. In October 2014, the Vladimir Regional Court upheld this decision. On April 7, 2015, a complaint was sent to the ECHR.\n\"Administrative Centre of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and Administrative Centre of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and Wachtturm Bibel-Und Traktat-Gesellschaft v Russia, application 76162/12. On July 24, 1997, the Russian State Press Committee authorized the Watch Tower, Bible, and Tract Society (a branch in Germany) to distribute The Watchtower and Awake! magazines in Russia. The Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia was a distributor. On April 26, 2010, Roskomnadzor revoked the permission to distribute the journals in Russia. On 6 October 2011 the Moscow Arbitration Court ruled in favour of the applicants, finding that the order had been unlawful. However, on January 25, 2012, the Ninth Arbitration Court ruled that the use of mass media to promote extremism was prohibited by the Law of the Russian Federation \"On Mass Media\" and the order of Roskomnadzor was legalized. The believers filed a complaint with the ECHR.\nTrotsyuk and Others v. Russia, (Trotsyuk and Others v. Russia) v. Russia. In September 2009, the Rostov Regional Court recognized the LRO of Jehovah's Witnesses in Taganrog as an extremist organization. In 2011, a criminal case was opened against Nikolai Trotsyuk and later against 15 other local Jehovah's Witnesses for organizing the activities of an extremist organization, involving in it and continuing the activities of the liquidated LRO. A written undertaking not to leave was taken from all believers. Since 2013, the Taganrog City Court has considered this case twice (after the first conviction, the appeal sent it for a new trial in a different composition of the court). As a result, all believers were found guilty. Four of them received a 5.5-year suspended sentence and a fine of 100,000 rubles, the rest were fined from 70,000 to 200,000 rubles. In March 2016, the Rostov Regional Court overturned the fines, upholding the rest of the conviction. This was the first time in modern Russia that Jehovah's Witnesses were criminally punished solely for their faith. On April 28, 2016, the believers filed a complaint with the ECHR.\nChristensen v. Russian Federation, application 44386/19 (Christensen v. Russia). Dennis Christensen, a Danish citizen, has lived in Russia since 1995. On the evening of May 25, 2017, armed FSB officers disrupted a worship service of Jehovah's Witnesses in Oryol. The believers were subjected to a personal search and interrogation, which lasted 10 hours, until 5:30 in the morning. Christensen was arrested and charged with continuing the activities of an extremist organization. After more than 50 hearings, the Zheleznodorozhny District Court found Christensen guilty and sentenced him to 6 years in prison. On February 18, 2019, the believer filed an appeal. He stressed that he had been discriminated against only because he was one of Jehovah's Witnesses. On May 23, 2019, the Oryol Regional Court rejected Christensen's arguments and upheld the decision of the lower court. However, the court could not explain how Dennis could coordinate the actions of a legal entity of Jehovah's Witnesses without being a member of it. The believer filed a complaint with the ECHR on August 20, 2019. (See also Christensen v. Russian Federation, complaint 39417/17.)\nChristensen v. Russian Federation, application 39417/17 (Christensen v. Russia). On May 25, 2017, police and FSB officers searched the home of Danish citizen Dennis Christensen and his wife, Irina. He was detained and accused of continuing the activities of the LRO of Jehovah's Witnesses in Oryol (liquidated by the decision of the Oryol Regional Court of June 14, 2016). The next day, the Sovetsky District Court ruled to detain the believer in a pre-trial detention center. Considering this a violation of his freedom of religion, Christensen appealed to the ECHR on June 2, 2017. He also filed a complaint with the Oryol Regional Court, which on June 21, 2017 upheld the measure of restraint without discussing the arguments of the defense. (See also Christensen v. Russia, complaint 44386/19.)\nBoltnev v. Russian Federation, application 3488/11 (Boltnyev v. Russia). On May 21, 2010, Jehovah's Witness Igor Boltnev and his fellow believer Farhod Mardonov were detained by police officers on a street in the city of Nizhnekamsk. The men's documents were checked and demanded to see the contents of the bags. Having found religious literature there, law enforcement officers took the believers to the police station, photographed them and took their fingerprints, and seized literature, Bibles and personal notes. Administrative cases against the two men were heard by different justices of the peace. On June 9, 2010, each of the believers was found guilty and fined 1,000 rubles due to the fact that a publication recognized as extremist was found among the seized literature. On July 7, 2010, the Nizhnekamsk City Court of the Republic of Tatarstan rejected the appeals of Boltnev and Mardonov. The believers filed complaints with the ECHR. (See also Mardonov v. Russian Federation.)\nMardonov v. Russian Federation, application 3492/11 (Mardonov v. Russia). On May 21, 2010, Jehovah's Witness Farhod Mardonov and his fellow believer Igor Boltnev were detained by police officers on a street in the city of Nizhnekamsk. The men's documents were checked and demanded to see the contents of the bags. Having found religious literature there, law enforcement officers took the believers to the police station, photographed them and took their fingerprints, and seized literature, Bibles and personal notes. The police report stated that as a result of comparing the texts of the Bibles seized from believers and the Bible of the Synodal translation, approved by the Russian Orthodox Church, discrepancies were found. Despite the fact that the men were detained at the same time, their cases were considered by different judges. On June 9, 2010, both believers were fined 1,000 rubles due to the fact that a publication recognized as extremist was found among the literature seized from them. On July 7, 2010, the Nizhnekamsk City Court of the Republic of Tatarstan rejected the appeals of Mardonov and Boltnev. The believers filed complaints with the ECHR. (See also Boltnev v. Russian Federation.)\nAliyev v. Russian Federation, application 14821/11 (Aliyev v. Russia). On March 31, 2010, police officers and the FSB of Birobidzhan disrupted a worship service at which Alam Aliyev, along with 50 other Jehovah's Witnesses, discussed printed excerpts from a Bible book. A month later, Aliyev was accused of distributing banned literature among fellow believers. In April 2010, the magistrate found him guilty and sentenced him to a fine of 3,000 rubles. The believer's complaint was registered with the ECHR on February 8, 2011.\nFedorin and Others v. Russia, (Fedorin and Others v. Russia). In 2010, 85-year-old Aleksey Fedorin and 9 other Jehovah's Witnesses filed a complaint with the ECHR about the violation of their rights as a result of searches conducted by the authorities, confiscation and destruction of religious literature. Aleksey Fedorin, who was imprisoned for 6 years in the 1970s for his faith, was detained again by a police officer in July 2010 and subjected to an 8-hour interrogation because of the distribution of religious literature among fellow villagers. He was denied a break for lunch and rest, despite his advanced age and disability. Although the believer claimed that during the period imputed to him he was ill and could not distribute literature, in July 2010 a judge of the Tselinsky District Court of the Rostov Region imposed a fine of 1,000 rubles on him, and ordered the literature to be confiscated and destroyed. In September 2010, the Tselinsky District Court rejected the believer's appeal. Nine other applicants from different regions of Russia faced similar treatment from the authorities.\nGareyev and Others v. Russia, application 5547/12 (Gareyev and Others v. Russia). In the fall of 2010, the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia sent more than a ton of print and audio publications to believers in Kemerovo, none of which were recognized as extremist. On October 26, the police detained the recipients, among them was Vitaly Gareev, and took them to the Investigative Committee for questioning. The entire batch was confiscated as \"relevant to the criminal case.\" In February 2011, the believers appealed to the Zavodsky District Court, but it did not find any violations in the actions of the security forces. 4 months later, the Kemerovo Regional Court took the same position. In January 2012, the believers filed a complaint with the ECHR.\n","category":"victory","date":"2022-06-07T16:22:43+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2022/06/071622/image_hu_e90ce4f55e093993.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2022/06/071622/image_hu_8c9f6a603e80570b.jpg","webp":"/news/2022/06/071622/image_hu_68d2a9d022c2cd72.webp","webp2x":"/news/2022/06/071622/image_hu_51db5d0baae7a62a.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2022/06/071622.html","regions":["moscow","moscow_obl","rostov","france"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["MRO","echr","acquittal","complaints","review","analytics"],"title":"European Court of Human Rights Acquits Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia","type":"news"},{"body":"On February 22, 2022, the European Court of Human Rights published two rulings in which it found that Russian authorities had violated the believers' right to freedom of religion when they detained them while discussing the Bible or conducting searches or inspections of their homes and places of worship.\nThe judgments are titled: “ Cheprunovs and Others v. Russia ” (complaint 74320/10) and “ Zharinova v. Russia ” (complaint 17715/12). In total, the ECHR ordered to pay the faithful about 100,000 euros in just compensation, damages to property and court costs. In both cases, the ECHR found that Russia had violated Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights (freedom of thought, conscience and religion). All the episodes refer to a time long before the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation ruled that all legal entities of this religion should be liquidated in the country. Below are the details of each of the 2 cases.\nCheprunovy and Others v. Russia (complaint 74320/10). In the 1st of 2 judgments, the ECHR decided to bring together 5 complaints submitted on behalf of 13 Jehovah's Witnesses from Ryazan and Tambov regions and Karelia.\nSpouses Mikhail and Larisa Cheprunov, who lived in Tambov in 2010, had their home searched. The search warrant stated that they may be in possession of \"items, literature, and electronic media that promote religious hatred and enmity, as well as other records of the activities of the Jehovah's Witnesses religious group. As a result, a Bible, religious literature, a laptop and a number of other personal items were seized from them. The Cheprunovs appealed the search order to a higher court. On 10 June 2010 their appeal was rejected by the Tambov regional court. Having exhausted all the domestic remedies, the believers turned to the ECHR, claiming that Article 9 of the Convention had been violated in their case. The ECHR sided with them and ordered Russia to pay the Cheprunovs 7,500 euro in just satisfaction.\nTogether with the complaint of the Cheprunovs, the ECHR considered the complaints of Elena Chavychalova (Chavychalova v. Russia, complaint 74329/10) and Elena Novakovskaya (Novakovskaya v. Russia, complaint 74339/10), who lived in the town of Rybnoe (Ryazan region). An operative search operation (ORM) \"inspection of the premises\" was conducted in Chavichalova's home on the basis of allegations that she was the leader of an unregistered group of Jehovah's Witnesses and suspicions of crimes under Article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code. They confiscated her Bible, issues of Watchtower and Awaken! magazines, and other religious literature. As a result, she was fined 1500 rubles for allegedly keeping nine items from her home for \"mass distribution. On 16 June 2010 the Rybnovskiy District Court rejected her appeal against the administrative fine, and on 28 June 2010 the Russian Supreme Court rejected her appeal against the judge's decision to authorize the raid on her home. As a result, the ECHR awarded Chavichalova 7,500 euros in compensation, as well as 37 euros in material damages. Novakowskaya's home was also raided, which resulted in the seizure of a Bible, issues of the magazines \"Watchtower\" and \"Awaken!\", as well as other religious literature. The raid was sanctioned by the regional court. The believer attempted to appeal the decision, but on September 28, 2010, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dismissed her appeal on the pretext of missing the deadline. The ECHR also awarded her compensation in the amount of 7,500 euros.\nAnother complaint (Pekshuev and Others v. Russia, complaint 60771/13) was filed on behalf of six Jehovah's Witnesses from Kostomuksha and Kalevala (Karelia). The complaint concerns a raid on the homes of believers conducted in 2012 by armed Federal Security Service officers in balaclavas. Bibles, magazines and books, a computer, videos and other personal items were also seized from believers. The applicants challenged the legality of the \"premises inspection\" operational-search measures. The Judicial Board for Criminal Cases of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Karelia dismissed their appeals in March and April 2013. In total, the ECHR awarded 38,000 euros in compensation to the applicants on this complaint.\nFinally, the last of the complaints considered in this case (Ogorodnikov and Others v. Russia, complaint 29295/14) was filed on behalf of four believers and one local religious organization (LRO), namely the LRO of Jehovah's Witnesses \"Kostomuksha\" (liquidated in 2017). This complaint relates to the \"inspection of premises\" in the worship building and houses of believers, conducted in 2012 by the Federal Security Service (FSB). The complainants were actually detained by FSB officers and religious literature, including Bibles, magazines and books on biblical themes, computers, videos, and paper notebooks were seized from them. The believers filed complaints, protesting against the conducted ORM and the illegal actions of the FSB officers. On October 17, 2013, the Judicial Board for Criminal Cases of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Karelia dismissed the applicants' appeals. In total, the ECHR awarded the applicants 22,500 euros in compensation on this complaint.\nZharinova v. Russia (complaint 17715/12). This is the 2nd judgment of the ECHR, issued on February 22, 2022. The complaint was filed by Yekaterina Zharinova, a resident of Ivanteevka (Moscow region). In 2011, Zharinova was approached by two police officers as she, accompanied by her friend, was talking about the Bible with local residents. The policemen took the women to the station, where they interrogated them and then subjected them to a body search. The women were stripped to their underwear in the presence of two witnesses. They were also ordered to remove their shoes and insoles. The female officer then shook out the contents of the women's bags and confiscated personal belongings and religious literature, including Bibles. The women were finally released after about four and a half hours. Zharinova complained about the actions of the police to the prosecutor's office and to Ivanteevsky city court. All of her complaints were dismissed. On 20 September 2011, the Moscow Regional Court also dismissed her appeal. In the case, the ECHR found that the Russian authorities had violated Zharinova's rights to liberty and security of person (Article 5, paragraph 1) of the Convention and to freedom of religion (Article 9 of the Convention). As a result, the ECHR awarded her €10,000 in just satisfaction and €1,000 in legal costs.\nAlthough these ECHR judgments do not directly address the repression of Russian Jehovah's Witnesses that has unfolded since 2017, the ECHR reaffirmed its well-established practice, consistently recognizing that the peaceful religious activities of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia are protected by Article 9 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Some 60 other complaints by believers are pending before the ECHR, including the Supreme Court's decision to liquidate all legal entities of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. Since 2017, Russian authorities have conducted some 1,700 searches of Jehovah's Witnesses.\nBoth judgments are final and cannot be appealed to the Grand Chamber of the ECHR.\n","category":"victory","date":"2022-02-22T16:44:00+02:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2022/02/221644/image_hu_cd34ac4b0f105847.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2022/02/221644/image.jpg","webp":"/news/2022/02/221644/image_hu_5e4d9ef049869a40.webp","webp2x":"/news/2022/02/221644/image_hu_90997108b9d84b5a.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2022/02/221644.html","regions":["karelia","ryazan","tambov","moscow_obl","france"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["echr","complaints","compensation"],"title":"The ECHR Issued Two Rulings in Favor of 14 Jehovah's Witnesses. They Complained About Searches and Detentions in 2010-2012","type":"news"},{"body":"The questioning of defence witnesses is ongoing. A former client, for whom Ivanov made repairs, says that Yevgeny \"has golden hands, 6 years have passed - there are no flaws in the work.\"\nThe defense challenges the judge in connection with the violation of the principle of adversarial parties. The court rejects it.\nThe court, at the request of the defense, attaches to the case the decisions of the ECHR, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention regarding the rights of Jehovah's Witnesses.\n","caseTitle":"The Case of Ivanov and Others in Astrakhan","date":"2021-10-07T00:00:00Z","permalink":"/en/cases/astrakhan/index.html#20211007","regions":["astrakhan"],"tags":["first-instance","echr"],"type":"timeline"},{"body":"On August 28, 2021, after a request from the European Court of Human Rights and Human Rights Defenders, as well as a medical examination, the court released Aleksandr Lubin and Anatoliy Isakov from the pre-trial detention center. For about 1.5 months, believers with disabilities were kept in conditions of torture that threaten their lives.\nOn July 13 and 14, 2021, in Kurgan and Shadrinsk (Kurgan Region), security forces conducted mass searches of Jehovah's Witnesses. Several believers were detained. 56-year-old Anatoliy Isakov and 65-year-old Aleksandr Lubin were taken into custody by a court decision.\nBoth believers were assigned the II group of disability due to serious illnesses, and the conditions of detention in the pre-trial detention center threatened their lives and were comparable to torture. Anatoliy Isakov was diagnosed with cancer of the blood, multiple compression fractures of the spine, ribs and other diseases. Due to the fact that he was behind bars, his course of chemotherapy was interrupted. Also, the believer was deprived of vital potent medicine, in connection with which Anatoliy experienced unbearable pain. He cannot walk without a wheelchair. Before the criminal prosecution, a believer, on average, needed hospitalization 6 times a year. The situation was aggravated by the fact that Anatoliy Isakov was infected with COVID-19 in the pre-trial detention center.\nAleksandr Lubin has several diagnoses: a serious vascular disease, hypertension, as well as an autoimmune disease that affects various organs. In addition to medical treatment, he needs humidified oxygen for 16 hours every day — during his imprisonment, Aleksandr was deprived of all this. It is difficult for a believer to walk, and in the event of a fall, he is unable to rise without assistance. Aleksandr's wife, Tatyana, also has a disability group II (she suffered 4 strokes). The arrest of her husband endangered her health as well — her legs began to fail, she had problems with speech.\nWhen deciding to choose a measure of restraint for believers, the judges relied on the certificates of the doctors of the Kurgan Regional Clinical Hospital, according to which Lubin and Isakov have no illnesses that prevent them from being held in the pre-trial detention center. The defense sent petitions to the Kurgan City Court with a request to replace it with a preventive measure not related to detention, but the court ignored them. Also, in view of the serious health condition of the believers, the lawyers demanded that the leadership of Detention Centre No.1 send Lubin and Isakov for a medical examination, however, this was ignored. On August 6, the Kurgan Regional Court did not satisfy the believers' appeals and left them in a pre-trial detention center.\nSince all internal means of the defense had been exhausted, on August 8, 2021, the lawyers lodged complaints with the European Court of Human Rights, together with an application for interim measures in accordance with Rule 39 of the Rules of Court. According to this rule, the ECHR, prior to its decision, may require the application of any preliminary measures in the interests of the parties, especially when there is an imminent threat of irreparable harm to human life and health. The ECHR communicated the complaint and petition to the Russian Government, demanding that the Russian Federation respond urgently.\nAs a result, on August 24, the believers were sent for a medical examination to the same Kurgan Regional Clinical Hospital. This time, the doctors discovered that the illnesses of Lubin and Isakov really impede their further detention. In this regard, the investigator applied to the court with a petition to change the preventive measure in the form of detention to prohibit certain actions. The court granted the petition and released the believers, but since the case has not been closed, they still face prison terms.\nThe decision of the Supreme Court to liquidate legal entities of Jehovah's Witnesses in 2017 gave rise to real persecution of ordinary believers. This legal \"collision\", as Tatyana Moskalkova, the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation, put it, cripples the lives of hundreds of people. The number of criminal cases against Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia is growing rapidly, dozens of believers are behind bars.\n","category":"victory","date":"2021-08-31T09:34:22+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2021/08/310934/image_hu_454a332a35d98814.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2021/08/310934/image_hu_41bd1abbc67e0a5d.jpg","webp":"/news/2021/08/310934/image_hu_f112bb286b6c8e97.webp","webp2x":"/news/2021/08/310934/image_hu_614213935f021b6e.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2021/08/310934.html","regions":["kurgan"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["echr","complaints","prohibition-of-actions","disability"],"title":"After a Complaint of Jehovah's Witnesses to the ECHR, Two Seriously Ill Residents of Kurgan Were Released From Custody","type":"news"},{"body":"The ECHR sends a request to the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation. Lawyers also appeal to the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Kurgan Region, after which the Commissioner initiates an urgent inspection.\n","caseTitle":"The Case of Isakov and Minsafin in Kurgan","date":"2021-08-10T00:00:00Z","permalink":"/en/cases/kurgan2/index.html#20210810","regions":["kurgan"],"tags":["sizo","echr","disability"],"type":"timeline"},{"body":"The ECHR sends a request to the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation. Lawyers also appeal to the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Kurgan Region, after which the Commissioner initiates an urgent inspection.\n","caseTitle":"The Case of Lubin in Shadrinsk","date":"2021-08-10T00:00:00Z","permalink":"/en/cases/shadrinsk/index.html#20210810","regions":["kurgan"],"tags":["echr","commissioner-rf"],"type":"timeline"},{"body":"Lawyers file a complaint with the ECHR about the detention of a believer despite his serious health condition.\n","caseTitle":"The Case of Isakov and Minsafin in Kurgan","date":"2021-08-08T00:00:00Z","permalink":"/en/cases/kurgan2/index.html#20210808","regions":["kurgan"],"tags":["sizo","echr","disability"],"type":"timeline"},{"body":"Lawyers file a complaint with the ECHR about the detention of a believer despite his serious health condition.\n","caseTitle":"The Case of Lubin in Shadrinsk","date":"2021-08-08T00:00:00Z","permalink":"/en/cases/shadrinsk/index.html#20210808","regions":["kurgan"],"tags":["echr"],"type":"timeline"},{"body":"On November 24, 2020, at least ten searches of believers took place in Moscow. Among the 4 detainees, 65-year-old Ivan Tchaikovsky, who is the applicant in the case Jehovah's Witnesses in Moscow v. Russia. In 2010, the ECHR obliged Russia to rehabilitate the community, but now the ECHR ruling is considered to be unimplemented and has been taken under the control of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.\n\"We have confirmed information about ten searches in the apartments of believers in the north-east of Moscow, which took place during November 24,\" says Yaroslav Sivulskiy of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses. \"No reliable data on searches in other regions of Russia have been received.\"\nAccording to preliminary information four believers were left for the night in the detention center: Ivan Tchaikovsky, 65, Sergey Shatalov, 51, Yuriy Chernyshev, 57, Vitaliy Komarov, 44. Searches were conducted in their apartments. Tchaikovsky was detained at his summer house in Tula region. Among the investigators was Valeriya Bashaeva from the Department for Investigation of Special Cases (crimes against the person and public safety).\nUpdate. Among the detainees turned out to be 49-year-old Vardan Zakaryan. After the raids, eyewitnesses saw fresh bruises on the believer\u0026rsquo;s face. He was hospitalized in the therapeutic department of the 20th city clinical hospital, where he spent two days under guard. The law enforcement officers did not allow the relatives to give the believer food. On November 26, the believer was taken directly from the ward to the Presnensky District Court of Moscow to decide on a preventive measure. The rest of the detainees were taken to the same court. Ivan Tchaikovsky was an elder in the Moscow Jehovah's Witnesses community when it was dissolved by Golovinsky court in March 2004. Disseminated in the media information about the detainees' association with any centralized or local Jehovah's Witnesses organization is not true. All these organizations ceased to exist in 2017. Since then, believers living in Russia have enjoyed the constitutional right to freely practice their religion without establishing any entity.\nIvan Tchaikovsky is one of Jehovah's Witnesses since 1977. Between 1998 and 2004, he had to defend his faith, as well as the Jehovah's Witnesses community registered in Moscow, against false accusations in the Golovinsky court, in a civil trial. In 2001, that court ruled in favor of Jehovah's Witnesses, but in 2004, under pressure from Moscow City Court, the community was liquidated.\n\"Later, in 2010, a convincing victory was won in Strasbourg,\" says Yaroslav Sivulskiy, \"Russian authorities paid the believers, through Ivan Tchaikovsky, a large monetary compensation. Now, however, Ivan Tchaikovsky is detained in a criminal case, and his house was searched. It is not surprising that the Committee of Ministers has taken under its special control the implementation of this ECHR decision.\"\nThe Committee, composed of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Council of Europe, is an international body that controls how countries implement the ECHR decisions. On October 1, 2020, this Committee issued a decision in which it was not the first time that the Russian Federation had failed to comply with the final decision in the case Jehovah's Witnesses in Moscow v. Russia. The Committee of Ministers pointed out that the decision of the Supreme Court in 2017 on Jehovah's Witnesses nullified the previous progress in this case, it creates a legal basis for the repetition of violations that had previously been assessed and found illegal by the European Court. The Committee of Ministers expressed serious concern about the imposition of a ban on Jehovah's Witnesses, who are a well-known religion and according to the ECHR case law are entitled to practice their religion.\nAccording to paragraph 4 of Article 46 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, such repeated failure to comply with the final decisions of the ECHR gives the Committee of Ministers the right to raise before the ECHR the issue of Russia's violation of its obligations under the Council of Europe.\nMany Russian and international organizations call on Russia to stop the religious persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses.\n","category":"rights","date":"2020-11-25T11:13:00+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2020/11/8/image_hu_ec363359bc883d2d.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2020/11/8/image_hu_cb6a3a2e27834612.jpg","webp":"/news/2020/11/8/image_hu_f82bf971dfc47c54.webp","webp2x":"/news/2020/11/8/image_hu_d0a37c1655b2d210.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2020/11/8.html","regions":["moscow"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["search","elderly","ivs","mid","echr","review"],"title":"Jehovah's Witnesses being searched in Moscow. How will these affect European foreign ministers?","type":"news"},{"body":"On June 10, 2010, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) gave legal analysis to a number of popular myths about Jehovah's Witnesses. The Russian government was ordered to restore the rights of the Moscow community and compensate for the damage. Ten years later, Russia is acting against the judgment.\nThe reason for appealing to the ECtHR was the decision of the Golovinsky Court of Moscow to liquidate the religious community of Jehovah's Witnesses in Moscow and ban its activities. The proceedings were initiated by the prosecutor of the Northern Administrative District of Moscow. In 2001, the Golovinsky Court rejected the prosecutor's demands, stating in its decision that there were no grounds for the liquidation and ban on the activities of the community. The case was, however, sent for a new trial, in which the court no longer investigated the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses, but their religious beliefs. In March 2004, the Golovinskiy court satisfied the prosecutor's demand. The complaint \"The religious community of Jehovah's Witnesses in Moscow against the Russian Federation\" was filed with the ECtHR.\nOn 10 June 2010, the Strasbourg Court issued a ruling. Seven judges unanimously recognized the dissolution of the Jehovah's Witnesses Religious Community in Moscow and the ban on its activities as illegal and as violating basic human rights to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Rejecting all the arguments of the Russian side, the European Court stressed that its ruling was subject to mandatory enforcement by the Russian Federation, which must take measures \"to cease the violation established by the European Court and to compensate as far as possible the consequences of such violation\".\nRussia has attempted to challenge this decision before a panel of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights. However, in December 2010, the Grand Chamber refused to allow Russia to review the ruling in the case.\nWhat is happening to believers now? The 10-year anniversary of the ruling was met in prison by 35 believers, 23 under house arrest, 26 under a ban on certain actions, 154 under a travel ban. Acting against the decision of the ECtHR, the Russian authorities liquidated not only the Moscow community that had won the suit at the ECtHR, but also all 396 registered organizations of that religion throughout Russia. On this basis, more than 300 believers were prosecuted under the article \"organization or participation in the activities of an organization liquidated by a court decision\" (Article 282.2 of the RF Criminal Code). New complaints were filed with the European Court. In addition, believers filed complaints against Russia's actions with the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which monitors the implementation of the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights. Meanwhile, legal scholars and human rights defenders both in Russia and abroad unanimously condemn the actions of the authorities against Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia.\n","category":"analytics","date":"2020-06-16T10:31:00+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2020/06/12/image_hu_589afa8f8458e425.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2020/06/12/image_hu_271bc7cec2337691.jpg","webp":"/news/2020/06/12/image_hu_1209314ef77ee027.webp","webp2x":"/news/2020/06/12/image_hu_9bdd2a009bbaa6dd.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2020/06/12.html","regions":["france","eu","moscow"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["echr","analytics","mro","complaints","review"],"title":"Ten Years Ago, ECHR Ruled in Jehovah's Witnesses in Moscow v. Russia Case. What Is Happening to Believers Now?","type":"news"},{"body":"On June 10, 2010, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) gave legal analysis to a number of popular myths about Jehovah's Witnesses. The Russian government was ordered to restore the rights of the Moscow community and compensate for the damage caused.\n","date":"2020-06-10T00:00:00Z","permalink":"/en/docs/23.html","regions":[],"tags":["echr"],"title":"Judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of the Religious Community of Jehovah's Witnesses in Moscow and Others v. the Russian Federation (complaint No. 302/02)","type":"docs"},{"body":"On September 23-25, 2019, a committee composed of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Council of Europe and overseeing the implementation of ECHR judgments \"urged the authorities to urgently take all necessary measures to ensure the right of Jehovah's Witnesses to practice their religion without hindrance.\"\nThe Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has examined the Russian Federation's compliance with the judgments in the cases of Jehovah's Witnesses of Moscow and Others v. Russia and Krupko and Others v. Russia. A document published on the website of the Council of Europe states: \"The Committee is concerned about information received from various sources that as a result of the new ban, Jehovah's Witnesses are being arrested, prosecuted and tried simply for participating in peaceful religious services and making donations.\"\nBackground to the case \"Jehovah's Witnesses of Moscow and Others v. Russia\". In March 2004, the Golovinsky Court of Moscow liquidated the local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses. The believers appealed this decision to the European Court of Human Rights and won. The court decided to lift the restrictions, re-register the community and pay tens of thousands of euros in compensation.\nBackground to the case of Krupko and Others v. Russia. In March 2006, about 400 believers gathered in a rented space for the annual celebration of the Memorial of the death of Jesus Christ. The worship service was disrupted - dozens of security officials, including a riot police, entered the building, ordered the crowd to disperse, and several men were detained. The believers appealed against these actions, first in local courts, and later in the ECHR. The European Court sided with Jehovah's Witnesses, found the disruption of worship and detention unlawful, and awarded the victims compensation for non-pecuniary damage and legal costs.\n","category":"rights","date":"2019-10-21T18:18:33+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2019/10/1268/image_hu_bef00bf20962b44e.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2019/10/1268/image_hu_19500d295c944042.jpg","webp":"/news/2019/10/1268/image_hu_7061905fe753f9ea.webp","webp2x":"/news/2019/10/1268/image_hu_aac3c5ccb8a11a3f.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2019/10/1268.html","regions":["france","moscow"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["echr","complaints","eu","mro","meetings-disruption"],"title":"The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe checked how Russia implements the judgments of the European Court on the complaints of Jehovah's Witnesses ","type":"news"},{"body":"On August 15, 2019, the Zheleznodorozhny District Court of Khabarovsk completed the judicial investigation in the criminal case against local resident Valery Moskalenko. He faces up to 6 years in prison for the fact that in the spring of 2018, in the conference hall of the hotel, he, according to the investigation, talked with friends about faith in Jehovah God. On August 28, the debate will begin, during which the prosecution will request punishment for the believer.\nThe case is being heard by Judge Ivan Belykh, the investigation was conducted by the local FSB department. In December 2018, the lawyers sent the complaint \"Moskalenko v. Russia\" to the European Court of Human Rights with a request to consider it as a priority in accordance with the policy of the Strasbourg Court. The complaint draws attention to the violation by the Russian Federation of several articles of the European Convention at once, including Articles 9, 3, 8, 17 and/or 18 (considered alone or jointly with other articles). The initiation of the case became known in August 2018. FSB and OMON officers invaded 6 houses of civilians in Khabarovsk, seized religious literature, mobile phones and other personal belongings of citizens. Among others, Valery Moskalenko was interrogated and taken into custody. He was accused of participating in worship services and \"hymns reflecting the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses.\" Valery Moskalenko is an assistant driver of an electric locomotive by profession. Before being placed in a pre-trial detention center, Valeriy lived with his elderly mother and provided her with daily care, which she desperately needs. When he was arrested, she became ill, she had to call an ambulance.\n","category":"trial","date":"2019-08-15T10:50:51+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2019/08/1069/gavel3_1_0_hu_bf906f76fa2a38a7.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2019/08/1069/gavel3_1_0.jpg","webp":"/news/2019/08/1069/gavel3_1_0_hu_755724c945518180.webp","webp2x":"/news/2019/08/1069/gavel3_1_0_hu_c57b019ca489577.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2019/08/1069.html","regions":["khabarovsk"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["prosecutor-request","sizo","echr","liberty-deprivation"],"title":"In Khabarovsk, the trial of a 52-year-old believer is coming to an end. He has been in jail for more than a year ","type":"news"},{"body":"On April 11, 2019, at 00:01, Sergey Loginov and Yevgeny Fedin, who had been behind bars since February 15, were released from custody. Two days earlier, the Surgut City Court refused to extend the investigators' detention.\nSergey Loginov, 57, is one of 7 Surgut residents who reported torture in the building of the Investigative Committee. On the fact of the incident, complaint No. 10618/19 \"Loginov and others v. Russia\" was filed with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The ECHR continues to consider this complaint.\nUpdate. The Surgut City Court imposed a ban on both believers to leave their homes at night, communicate with other defendants in the case, use mail, telephone and the Internet. This ban came into force after their release from the pre-trial detention center.\n","category":"restriction","date":"2019-04-12T11:30:35+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2019/04/749/lori-0000576000-bigwww-crop_0_hu_3bc6f4d778dccff8.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2019/04/749/lori-0000576000-bigwww-crop_0.jpg","webp":"/news/2019/04/749/lori-0000576000-bigwww-crop_0_hu_993ee1c30ce119f8.webp","webp2x":"/news/2019/04/749/lori-0000576000-bigwww-crop_0_hu_afa4eaaf97eb7aa8.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2019/04/749.html","regions":["khanty-mansi"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["sizo","prohibition-of-actions","complaints","echr"],"title":"In Surgut, a court released both Jehovah's Witnesses who remained in jail","type":"news"},{"body":"On 20 March 2019, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) lifted the urgent interim measures imposed in the event of a threat to the applicant's life. However, the cessation of such a threat, which makes it possible to remove interim measures, does not mean that the ECHR recognized the failure to prove the torture committed on February 15, 2019. The ECHR continues to consider the complaint of Sergey Loginov and other believers from Surgut (Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area) about the torture inflicted on them.\nOn March 18, 2019, the Russian Government, in its response to the ECHR, referring to the medical examinations carried out, indicated the absence of diseases preventing the detention of Sergey Loginov. However, an independent medical examination for torture (examination of the skin by experts in the field of forensic medical examination, psychological research) has not yet been carried out in relation to the believer.\nThe believer's lawyer requested an independent examination with the involvement of dermatologists and psychologists, as well as other highly specialized experts specializing in skin burns, in order to identify traces of the use of stun guns and the psychological consequences of torture. In response to this petition, the believer, who was beaten with a stun gun through a wet cloth to reduce the appearance of burns on his body, was externally examined by a paramedic of the pre-trial detention center through the prison bars! Later, a consultation with a psychiatrist was organized in the pre-trial detention center for the presence of mental illness in Loginov. Meanwhile, the defense did not doubt that he did not have mental illness, but asked to identify the psychological trauma caused by the use of torture. Russia has not done this.\nOn March 5, 2019, 18 days after the torture, when the traces of burns caused by the stun gun became indistinguishable, Loginov was examined at the Nizhnevartovsk District Clinical Hospital for the presence of diseases that prevent his detention. At the same time, specialists in the field of studying the skin and a psychologist were still not involved in the examination.\nThus, the Russian authorities replaced the requirement to examine Loginov for torture with a medical report on his general state of health. Believers continue to seek an investigation into what happened.\n","category":"rights","date":"2019-03-21T21:38:33+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2019/03/681/702013119_univ_lsr_xl2999_0_hu_2bb747ab688e3ccc.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2019/03/681/702013119_univ_lsr_xl2999_0.jpg","webp":"/news/2019/03/681/702013119_univ_lsr_xl2999_0_hu_696303f32266b608.webp","webp2x":"/news/2019/03/681/702013119_univ_lsr_xl2999_0_hu_5d9f730ee10adda9.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2019/03/681.html","regions":["france","khanty-mansi"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["echr","complaints","torture","health-risk","sizo"],"title":"The ECHR lifted the interim measures, but continues to consider the complaint of Surgut residents about torture","type":"news"},{"body":"The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) lifts the urgent interim measures, but continues to consider the complaint of Sergey Loginov and other believers of Surgut about the torture applied to them.\n","caseTitle":"The Case of Loginov and Others in Surgut","date":"2019-03-20T00:00:00Z","permalink":"/en/cases/surgut/index.html#20190320","regions":["khanty-mansi"],"tags":["echr","torture"],"type":"timeline"},{"body":"Eugene Yakku complains about unfair accusations to the European Court of Human Rights.\n","caseTitle":"Case of Yakku in Arkhangelsk","date":"2019-03-05T00:00:00Z","permalink":"/en/cases/arkhangelsk2/index.html#20190305","regions":["arkhangelsk"],"tags":["echr","complaints"],"type":"timeline"},{"body":"On February 26, 2019, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ordered the Russian government to urgently send for a medical examination 57-year-old Sergey Loginov, one of 7 Surgut residents who reported torture in the building of the Investigative Committee. Sergey Loginov is the only one of these seven who is in custody.\nAccording to the order of the Strasbourg court, the Russian government must send Sergey Loginov for examination to a medical institution independent of the Investigative Committee and the penitentiary authorities by March 20, 2019, in order to examine his physical and psychological condition, as well as the harm allegedly caused to him by torture on February 15 and 16, 2019. Doctors must determine whether he needs treatment and whether his condition is compatible with his further stay behind bars. By March 11, 2019, opinions prepared by independent doctors must be submitted to the European Court.\nThe complaint \"Loginov and Others v. Russia\" was prepared and submitted to the European Court in a short time, it was assigned the number 10618/19.\nThree believers, Sergey Loginov, Yevgeny Fedin and Artur Severinchik, were sent to jail in connection with this case. They are in a pre-trial detention center in Nizhnevartovsk (Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area). There were no reports that Yevgeny Fedin and Artur Severinchik were tortured. Earlier in Surgut (Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug), mass searches and detentions of citizens suspected of professing the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses took place. At least 7 people reported that they were beaten and tortured during interrogations in the building of the Investigative Committee. In total, 20 local residents, including a woman, became defendants in this case. On February 16, 2019, the hotline of the Investigative Committee of Russia received an appeal with a request to take action in connection with reports of torture of Sergey Loginov.\nLaw enforcers mistakenly mistake citizens' religion for participation in the activities of an extremist organization, referring to a court decision to liquidate and ban the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses organizations in Russia.\n","category":"rights","date":"2019-02-27T15:28:51+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2019/02/627/image_hu_82e791bf0fd8da90.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2019/02/627/image_hu_f16ebbeb9e25bc63.jpg","webp":"/news/2019/02/627/image_hu_5b7f1ed8f664732f.webp","webp2x":"/news/2019/02/627/image_hu_e58b44e875621a60.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2019/02/627.html","regions":["khanty-mansi","france"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["echr","torture","complaints","sizo","review"],"title":"ECHR imposed interim measures on a complaint of torture in Surgut","type":"news"},{"body":"According to complaint No. 10618/19, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) orders the Russian government to release Sergey Loginov, who has been tortured, from custody under house arrest and urgently send him for a medical examination.\n","caseTitle":"The Case of Loginov and Others in Surgut","date":"2019-02-26T00:00:00Z","permalink":"/en/cases/surgut/index.html#20190226","regions":["khanty-mansi"],"tags":["echr","torture"],"type":"timeline"},{"body":"\n","date":"2019-02-26T00:00:00Z","permalink":"/en/docs/638.html","regions":["khanty-mansi"],"tags":["echr","torture"],"title":"Imposition of interim measures by the Strasbourg Court on the complaint \"Loginov and Others v. Russia\"","type":"docs"},{"body":"On February 7, 2019, observers of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) expressed serious concern about the verdict against Dennis Christensen. They stated: \"The accusation and imprisonment of Christensen only for confessing his faith is an unacceptable violation of the right to freedom of religion.\"\n\"The speakers expressed the hope that Christensen's conviction would be overturned by the decision of the Court of Appeal and called on the Russian authorities to release him while the appeal is pending.\"\nThe observers recalled that the European Court of Human Rights had previously defended the right of Jehovah's Witnesses to conduct religious activities without interference from the Russian authorities. In addition, PACE itself has previously expressed concern about the abuse of the law on countering extremism by the Russian authorities. Thus, on April 21, 2017, PACE issued a statement stating, among other things: \"The recent decision of the Supreme Court to declare the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Russian Federation an extremist organization and to close it and 395 local religious organizations of the Witnesses raises serious concerns about religious freedom in Russia, and also serves as another example of how anti-extremist legislation is used to suppress freedom of expression opinions and peaceful assemblies\" (source).\n","category":"rights","date":"2019-02-13T20:44:34+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2019/02/612/plenary_chamber_of_the_council_of_europes_palace_of_europe_2014_01_hu_265297661933db31.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2019/02/612/plenary_chamber_of_the_council_of_europes_palace_of_europe_2014_01.jpg","webp":"/news/2019/02/612/plenary_chamber_of_the_council_of_europes_palace_of_europe_2014_01_hu_2cd57d2673c409d8.webp","webp2x":"/news/2019/02/612/plenary_chamber_of_the_council_of_europes_palace_of_europe_2014_01_hu_511d07dc4b5e81bf.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2019/02/612.html","regions":["france"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["eu","pace","echr","liberty-deprivation"],"title":"PACE observers called for Christensen's release without waiting for an appeal","type":"news"},{"body":"On February 6, 2019, Dennis Christensen, a resident of Orlov, was sentenced to 6 years in prison on the grounds that the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation liquidated the local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses \"Orel\", like hundreds of other organizations of this religion, considering that it was engaged in extremist activities. Jehovah's Witnesses consider 1) Christensen's conviction, (2) the Supreme Court's decision to liquidate religious organizations, and (3) the entire decision to recognize Jehovah's Witnesses' Christian books as \"extremist materials\" to be unfounded and unjust. Why?\nWhy is Christensen's conviction unjust? Because it contradicts the Russian government's own legal position presented to the ECHR: \"The authorities of the Russian Federation emphasize that the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of April 20, 2017 and the appellate ruling of the Appellate Board of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of July 17, 2017 do not assess the doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses, do not contain a restriction or prohibition to practice the above teaching individually.\" The Russian government's explanation at the UN Human Rights Committee reads as follows: \"The decision [of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation] does not restrict the right of citizens to freedom of religion. Members of the liquidated organization have the opportunity to practice their beliefs independently, provided that they do not distribute literature with extremist content or otherwise participate in illegal activities.\" The court's mistake lies in the fact that the court interpreted the ordinary, lawful activities of Dennis Christensen as \"organizing the activities of an extremist organization.\"\nWhy are the decisions of the Supreme Court on the liquidation of religious organizations unjust? Because they are based on falsified \"evidence\" that the Supreme Court took on faith. In 2015-2016, there was an epidemic of similar planting of prohibited materials in the worship buildings of Jehovah's Witnesses and subsequent discoveries in the regions of Russia, which was often recorded on surveillance cameras. Lower-level courts dismissed protests from believers and imposed fines on communities, but later the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation gave those decisions prejudicial force and formally liquidated all organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses. This led to the seizure of hundreds of worship buildings worth over 6 billion rubles from believers, as well as to criminal cases and imprisonment of dozens of people.\nWhy are court decisions to recognize the Christian books of Jehovah's Witnesses as \"extremist materials\" unjust? Since 2009, books have been included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials (FSEM) for the most innocuous statements, for example: \"People worship many things. But the Bible says that there is only one true God. Not all beliefs and customs are bad. But God does not approve of those that come from false religion and contradict biblical teachings.\" The reason for the ridiculous decisions is the vague definitions of \"extremism\" in the law and the obvious incompetence or bias of the judges, who considered \"extremism\" the belief of Jehovah's Witnesses in the truth of their religious choice.\n\"The inclusion of books of Jehovah's Witnesses in the FSEM is the only reason for accusations of extremism brought against our fellow believers in Russia,\" says Yaroslav Sivulsky of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses. - The Supreme Court of Russia was able to distinguish the wheat from the chaff in a timely manner, but did not do so. This has caused irreparable suffering to thousands of people whose entire fault is their faith. They hope that the Russian authorities will find the courage to correct mistakes and restore the rights of innocent people.\n","category":"analytics","date":"2019-02-13T15:07:28+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2019/02/611/17069_0_hu_e8104f391b2e2036.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2019/02/611/17069_0.jpg","webp":"/news/2019/02/611/17069_0_hu_7379a4c66a88617b.webp","webp2x":"/news/2019/02/611/17069_0_hu_895c022321695ad7.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2019/02/611.html","regions":["oryol"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["supreme-court","echr","review","fsem","liberty-deprivation"],"title":"Jehovah's Witnesses consider court decisions against them to be unlawed","type":"news"},{"body":"On December 18, 2018, a new complaint \"Moskalenko v. Russia\" was sent to the European Court of Human Rights with a request to consider it as a priority in accordance with the policy of the Strasbourg Court.\nOn August 2, 2018, FSB and OMON officers invaded at least 5 houses of civilians in Khabarovsk. The police seized religious literature, mobile phones and other personal belongings of citizens. Among others, Valery Vasilyevich Moskalenko was interrogated and taken into custody. He is accused of participating in worship services and \"hymns reflecting the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses.\" If convicted, he faces up to 6 years in prison.\nThe complaint draws attention to the violation by the Russian Federation of several articles of the European Convention at once, including Articles 9, 3, 8, 17 and/or 18 (considered alone or jointly with other articles). Thus, article 18 of the Convention prohibits the imposition of restrictions for purposes other than those for which they were intended. In this regard, the complaint emphasizes: \"The declared goal of combating extremism serves as a cover for the State for the illegal goal of eradicating the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia.\"\nTo date, more than 40 complaints from Jehovah's Witnesses have been filed with the European Court of Human Rights against Russia. Among them are \"MRO Taganrog and Others v. Russia\" No. 32401/10 and 21 other complaints (communicated on March 6, 2014); MRO Samara and Others v. Russia No. 15962/15 and 6 other complaints (communicated on September 4, 2017); \"Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and Kalin v. Russian Federation\" No. 10188/17 (communicated on December 1, 2017); Christensen v. Russia No. 39417/17 (communicated on 4 September 2017); \"Markin and Trofimov v. Russia\" No. 20/519/18; Suvorov and Others v. Russia No. 29779/18; Polyakovy v. Russia No. 32532/18; Klimov v. Russia No. 40768/18; Puida and Others v. Russia No. 42412/18; Britvin \u0026 Levchuk v. Russia (filed November 1, 2018); Bazhenov and Others v. Russia (filed November 30, 2018).\n","category":"rights","date":"2019-01-01T20:15:00+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2019/01/556/kollazhik6922_hu_a4614aaf3c00dcdf.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2019/01/556/kollazhik6922.jpg","webp":"/news/2019/01/556/kollazhik6922_hu_4bae8bd42ec4e939.webp","webp2x":"/news/2019/01/556/kollazhik6922_hu_91bc4f94a51f9d59.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2019/01/556.html","regions":["khabarovsk","france"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["complaints","echr","search","interrogation"],"title":"Moskalenko v. Russia: New Complaint to the ECHR in the Case of Jehovah's Witnesses ","type":"news"},{"body":"On December 13, 2018, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) informed Jehovah's Witnesses that Russia had commented on the complaint \"LRO Glazova and Others v. Russia.\" The substantive remarks state: \"The Government emphasise that the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 20 April 2017 and the appellate ruling of the Appellate Board of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 17 July 2017 do not assess the doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses and do not contain a restriction or prohibition on the individual practice of the above-mentioned doctrine.\"\n\"In view of the foregoing,\" continues Mikhail Galperin, Deputy Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation, who signed the comments, \" there is no violation of the provisions of the Convention in the present case in connection with the liquidation of the Administrative Center and the prohibition of its activities.\"\n\"The explanations presented to the European Court look mocking, especially for tens of thousands of believers who live in constant fear of a sudden search or arrest,\" believes Yaroslav Sivulsky of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses, \"As a result of the decision taken by the Supreme Court, 62 people, including 7 women, were imprisoned for their faith. Right now, 26 people are languishing in various Russian pre-trial detention centers. By claiming that there are no violations, the authorities only exacerbate the already desperate human rights situation in Russia.\"\nComplaint No. 3215/18 (LRO Glazova and Others v. Russian Federation) was filed on behalf of 395 local religious organizations (LROs) that were liquidated by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in April 2017 along with the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. The ECHR declared the complaint admissible and indicated that it would consider it as a matter of priority.\nSeparately, complaint No. 10188/17 was filed with the ECHR (\"Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and Kalin v. Russian Federation\"). Russia sent comments on the merits of this complaint to the ECHR in March 2018. In December 2018, Russia submitted observations to the compensation claims for both complaints. Now the complaints have been referred to the court. A ruling is awaited.\n","category":"org","date":"2018-12-19T15:21:11+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2018/12/546/image_hu_affee45bf96b0592.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2018/12/546/image_hu_e075a8f6fbebffc0.jpg","webp":"/news/2018/12/546/image_hu_11acd09eadbdfafb.webp","webp2x":"/news/2018/12/546/image_hu_4bb9473a29123698.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2018/12/546.html","regions":["moscow","france"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["echr","international","supreme-court","complaints","mro","administrative-center","liquidation"],"title":"Russia submitted comments to the European Court on the complaint \"LRO Glazova and Others v. Russia\"","type":"news"},{"body":"In connection with the ban on activities and the seizure of property, Jehovah's Witnesses filed 2 complaints with the European Court of Human Rights with a total amount of compensation claims of more than 6 billion rubles (79,215,679 euros). In its response sent to the court on 7 December 2018, the Russian Federation rejected all material claims.\nThe amount consists mainly of the cost of worship buildings turned into state income (believers emphasize that their main demand is not money, but the return of real estate). Thus, a large worship complex in the village of Solnechnoye (St. Petersburg) worth about 2 billion rubles was taken away from believers. Russia turned it into its property, but denies it before the ECHR. How is that possible?\nDeputy Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation Mikhail Galperin wrote to the European Court: \"All the listed property at the time of the liquidation of the organization did not belong to the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. In particular, according to a certificate from Rosreestr, the real estate listed in paragraph 1 of Appendix 18 belongs to the Watch Tower, Bibles and Tracts Society of Pennsylvania, an organization that is not a complainant to the European Court. Accordingly, the complaint of the \"Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia\" in relation to real estate at 6 Srednaya Street in Solnechnoye, St. Petersburg, is not substantiated and is not subject to satisfaction by the court\" (paragraph 8 of the Notes).\nThe position of the Russian authorities in the international court comes into striking conflict with their own position - but in the domestic Russian court. In December 2017, the state appealed to a domestic Russian court, arguing that the Watch Tower Society did not actually own the worship complex, and that the transfer of ownership from the \"Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia\" to it in 2000 was a sham. The court's decision of December 7, 2017 says: \"The court found that the direct transfer by the donor of the thing into the possession, use and disposal of the donee did not take place, the transactions were not actually executed.\" As a result, the court declared the 17-year-old transaction null and void, and the complex was subject to seizure to the state, as if it still belonged to the \"Administrative Center\". (Earlier, during the hearing in the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, the Watch Tower Society petitioned to intervene in the case due to the fact that its interests could be affected by the court decision, informed the court about the property available on the territory of Russia, filed a private complaint against the refusal to involve in the case, and even an appeal against the court decision, but to no avail.)\n\"The tricks of the Ministry of Justice look unconvincing,\" said Yaroslav Sivulsky of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses. It is sad to realize that Russia \"for export\" is so different from Russia for its own citizens.\nAfter Russia had submitted all its observations, the complaints were referred to the court. The ECHR said it would consider them as a matter of priority. A ruling is awaited.\n","category":"org","date":"2018-12-19T15:15:32+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2018/12/545/_mg_102425992_0_hu_67c35d9be63344c4.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2018/12/545/_mg_102425992_0.jpg","webp":"/news/2018/12/545/_mg_102425992_0_hu_f7f64f05b950b3b2.webp","webp2x":"/news/2018/12/545/_mg_102425992_0_hu_f4e4f4447aef578a.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2018/12/545.html","regions":["moscow","france"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["complaints","administrative-center","echr","compensation","buildings-seizure"],"title":"Russia rejects Jehovah's Witnesses' claims for compensation before the ECHR","type":"news"},{"body":"The complaint \"Moskalenko v. Russia\" was sent to the European Court of Human Rights with a request to consider it as a priority in accordance with the policy of the Strasbourg Court.\n","caseTitle":"Case of Moskalenko in Khabarovsk","date":"2018-12-18T00:00:00Z","permalink":"/en/cases/khabarovsk5/index.html#20181218","regions":["khabarovsk"],"tags":["echr"],"type":"timeline"},{"body":"On September 17, 2018, Deputy Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation Mikhail Galperin asked the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to grant Russia an additional 3-month grace period to prepare comments on the claims for compensation in complaints No. 10188/17 \"Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and Kalin v. Russian Federation\" and No. 3215/18 \"LRO Glazova and Others v. Russian Federation\". The court granted a reprieve until December 7, 2018.\nThe total amount of compensation claims for these complaints exceeds 6 billion rubles (79,215,679 euros). The complaints were filed in connection with the decision of the Supreme Court of Russia to liquidate and ban the activities of all registered organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses, as well as to turn all their property, primarily all worship buildings, into state revenue.\nIn their application for compensation, the believers emphasize that the main requirement for the Russian Federation is the return of confiscated real estate throughout Russia.\nThe ECHR declared complaints No. 10188/17 and No. 3215/18 admissible and said that it would consider them as a matter of priority. In March 2018, the Russian government sent its comments to the Strasbourg Court on the merits of complaint No. 10188/17 \"Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and Kalin v. Russian Federation\", stressing that the decision of the Supreme Court and the appellate ruling by which it was upheld \"do not assess the doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses, do not contain a restriction or prohibition to practice the above teaching individually\" (par. 91). However, less than a month after this statement, mass searches and arrests of believers began in Russia, which is of the greatest concern as a direct consequence of the decision of the Supreme Court.\nMikhail Galperin justified the delay in preparing comments on compensation claims by the large number of applicants and the large amount of documentation, as well as the need to verify the stated claims, which implies a request for real estate data from various Russian authorities throughout the country.\n","category":"trial","date":"2018-09-26T09:58:37+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2018/09/480/shutterstock_34787520526192_2_hu_6e788a2878d27343.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2018/09/480/shutterstock_34787520526192_2.jpg","webp":"/news/2018/09/480/shutterstock_34787520526192_2_hu_e4d84198bab985c4.webp","webp2x":"/news/2018/09/480/shutterstock_34787520526192_2_hu_1c7ef1072df9acb5.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2018/09/480.html","regions":["moscow","france"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["echr","complaints","mro","administrative-center","liquidation","buildings-seizure"],"title":"Russia asked the ECHR for additional time to prepare a response to the case of Jehovah's Witnesses","type":"news"},{"body":"On May 15, 2018, the Kingdom of Denmark submitted an application to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to join as a 3rd person in the case of Christensen v. Russia.\nThe complaint was filed with the ECHR in June 2017, after Russian courts made an unsubstantiated decision to pre-trial detention Dennis Christensen, a Danish citizen who was arrested in Oryol solely for practicing the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses. (Russian law enforcement officials mistakenly mistake citizens' joint religion for participation in an extremist organization.) The complaint was accompanied by a written request from Christensen himself to consider the case as a matter of urgency. On 4 September 2017, the ECHR declared the complaint admissible and sent questions to the Russian Government regarding the circumstances of the case.\nIt all started a year ago, on May 26, 2017, when Svetlana Naumova, a judge of the Sovetsky District Court of Oryol, without due grounds decided to choose a measure of restraint in the form of detention against Dennis Christensen, thereby correcting Christensen's key constitutional and basic human right - the right to liberty and security of person, which is second only to the right to life in importance. Four weeks later, on June 21, 2017, the Oryol Regional Court upheld the decision of the lower court.\nAt the time of publication of this news, Dennis Christensen has been in custody in the Oryol pre-trial detention center for a year.\nUnofficial translation\nApplication No. 39417/17\nDennis Ole Christensen v. Russia\nComments by the Government of Denmark\nIn a letter dated 7 September 2017, the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter referred to as the Court) notified the Government of Denmark (hereinafter referred to as the Government) of the above-mentioned application lodged by a Danish citizen and invited the Government to notify the Court if the Government decided to exercise its right to intervene under Article 36 § 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter referred to as the Convention) and Rule 44 of the Rules of Court. In a letter of 30 November 2017 the Government informed the Court of their intention to exercise their right to intervene. In a letter of 26 March 2018, the Court sent to the Government a copy of the parties' observations concerning this application and invited the Government to submit in writing any observations it might have on the issues raised in the present case. The deadline for submission of comments from the Government was set for April 27, 2018. The Government argued that the applicant's pre-trial detention constituted a violation of Article 5 § 3 of the Convention. The Government emphasise that the above arguments are without prejudice to the present case, either when Article 9 § 1 of the Convention is applied alone or when applied in conjunction with Article 14 of the Convention, which has also been violated, as alleged by the applicant. If the Court has any questions in view of these observations or the statement in general, the Government will be at your disposal. I. QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES\nParties were invited to address the following issues in their comments:Has there been a violation of Article 9 of the Convention, taken alone or in conjunction with the provisions of Article 14 of the Convention, in connection with the applicant's arrest and detention? Did the domestic courts' decisions to detain the applicant and extend his detention contain \"substantial and sufficient\" grounds, as required by Article 5 § 3 of the Convention (see Buzadji v. Moldova, No. 23755/07, paras. 92-102, ECHR 2016 (excerpts))? The Government further provides comments on question 2. This case concerns the imprisonment of a Danish citizen for 10 months by the Russian authorities and, according to the information provided to the Government, it is clear that he was deprived of his liberty without sufficient grounds. Article 5 of the Convention is one of the key provisions of the Convention and prohibits arbitrary deprivation of liberty. A fundamental safeguard against arbitrary deprivation of liberty is that any deprivation of liberty must be justified on substantial and sufficient grounds. Moreover, as provided for in article 5, paragraph 1, of the Convention, pre-trial detention is an exception to the basic rule under article 5, paragraph 1, that everyone has the right to liberty. Article 5, paragraph 3, of the Convention provides for a number of procedural guarantees, including the provision that pre-trial detention should not exceed a reasonable time. II. THE GOVERNMENT'S OBSERVATIONS\nAccording to the Court's case-law under Article 5 § 3, the maintenance of \"reasonable suspicion\" is a sine qua non[1] condition for the lawfulness of continued detention (see, inter alia[2], Grand Chamber judgment of 5 July 2016, Buzadji v. Moldova, application No. 23755/07). In paragraph 102 of Buzadji v. Moldova, cited above, the Court stated that, in addition to maintaining reasonable suspicion, the official was required to provide \"substantial and sufficient\" reasons for detention immediately after arrest. In previous cases, the Court has found arguments to be \"substantial\" and \"sufficient\" reasons on grounds such as \"the threat of escape, the risk of exerting pressure on witnesses or the falsification of evidence, the risk of collusion, the risk of re-offending, the risk of causing public disorder and the need to protect the detainee\" (see paragraph 88 of Buzadji v. Moldova, cited above). a. Reasonable suspicion\nThe investigator of the Investigative Department of the FSB of Russia in the Oryol region justified the first requirement for the applicant's detention as follows (Appendix 16):\n[...] in the period from October 18, 2016 to May 16, 2017, D.O. Christensen, being a member of the local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses \"Orel\" (hereinafter referred to as the LRO of Jehovah's Witnesses \"Orel\") [...] , in respect of which the decision of the Oryol Regional Court of June 14, 2016, which entered into force, was made on the liquidation of activities in connection with the implementation of extremist activities, committed actions of an organizational nature, aimed at continuing the illegal activities of the LRO of Jehovah's Witnesses \"Eagle\" and expressed in the convening of meetings of the LRO of Jehovah's Witnesses \"Eagle\" in the premises at: [...], the organization of preaching activities, the distribution of funds of the LRO of Jehovah's Witnesses \"Eagle\".\nAs can be seen from the above quotations, the applicant was allegedly a member of the LRO \"Oryol\", which was dissolved on the grounds of extremist activity. However, according to the available information, the applicant had never been a member of the Oryol LRO and he could never have become a member because the Orel LRO did not recognise foreign nationals as members (see paragraph 10 of the applicant's reply of 21 February 2018 to the Government's observations on the admissibility and merits of the case). It would be more accurate to say that the applicant was a member of the legitimate religious assembly \"Central\". Furthermore, the Government would like to point out that the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, in its judgment of 18 October 2016, made it clear that the \"liquidation\" of the Orel LRO does not prohibit its members from holding worship services that are not related to the distribution of extremist literature. This conclusion further confirms that the applicant has the right to attend, participate in and conduct worship services at the Tsentralnoye Meeting. On this basis, the Government considered that there were no grounds for \"reasonable suspicion\" that the applicant had committed the offence for which he had been detained. The Government considered that Article 5 § 3 of the Convention had been violated on that ground alone. b. \"Substantial\" and \"Sufficient\"\ni. Threat of Escape\nOn 21 June 2017 the Oryol Regional Court upheld the decision to impose pre-trial detention on the applicant. The court's reasoning includes the following (Appendix 36-B):\nThe arguments of the defense lawyers that Christensen has been registered as a permanent resident of the city of Oryol for more than 10 years, has a residence permit and a legal source of income in the Russian Federation, is married to a citizen of the Russian Federation, has a positive characteristic at the place of residence, are not a sufficient guarantee that in case of release Christensen will not leave the Russian Federation, This could seriously complicate the preliminary investigation.\nIn principle, the threat of escape is among the circumstances which have been considered \"substantial\" and \"sufficient\" in previous cases before the Court (see paragraph 88 of Buzadji v. Moldova, cited above). However, the Court recognizes the threat of escape only when such a risk is considered real. The Court pointed out that the threat of escape could not be determined solely by the gravity of the sentence possible; it should be assessed on the basis of other relevant factors. In this context, account must be taken, inter alia, of the character of the person concerned, his or her morals, property, connection with the State in which he or she is persecuted and his or her international contacts (see, inter alia, paragraph 33 of the judgment of 26 January 1993, V. (W) v. Switzerland, application No. 14379/88). In the present case, the Oryol Regional Court found that the applicant had been registered as a permanent resident of Oryol for more than 10 years, had a residence permit and a legal source of income in the Russian Federation, was married to a citizen of the Russian Federation and had a positive characteristic at his place of residence, but, nevertheless, the court found that these factors did not constitute a sufficient guarantee that that the applicant will not leave the Russian Federation. In its appeal decision, the Oryol Regional Court did not state any reason why these factors could not be considered as a guarantee against escape. Moreover, on 15 September 2017 the applicant received a letter from the Embassy of Denmark in Moscow (Annex 20) assuring him that the Embassy would not issue him a new passport or otherwise assist him in leaving the territory of the Russian Federation. However, the letter did not lead to the applicant's release. The Court had previously ruled that an applicant who provided reasonable grounds for his or her to appear before a court, for example by providing guarantees or depositing his or her passport, should be released (see paragraph 39 of the Court's judgment of 12 December 1991 in the case of Clooth v . Belgium, application No. 12718/87). In this regard, the Government considered that there was no real risk of escape, and therefore such an alleged justification could not constitute \"substantial\" and \"sufficient\" reasons for the applicant's detention. ii. Risk of collusion\nIn its appeal decision of 21 June 2017 the Oryol Regional Court also gave the following reason, leaving unchanged the decision to impose a preventive measure on the applicant in the form of pre-trial detention (Appendix 36-B):\n[The applicant] may use his authority and position among the members of the religious organization Jehovah's Witnesses \"Oryol\", in respect of which the court issued a decision to liquidate it in connection with its recognition as extremist, can influence them in order to induce them to testify in his favor or refuse to testify, thereby obstructing the proceedings, or take measures to destroy evidence.\nIn principle, the risk of collusion, including fears that witnesses will be influenced or that evidence will be tampered with, is also one of the justifications that the Court has defined in previous cases as \"substantial\" and \"sufficient\" grounds for pre-trial detention (see paragraph 88 of Buzadji v. Moldova, cited above). In its case-law, the Court has found that the risk of collusion, including the fear that witnesses will be influenced or that evidence will be tampered with, is a justification that becomes invalid over time (see, inter alia, paragraph 35 of the Court's judgment cited above in W. v. Switzerland). According to the information submitted, the FSB investigator interviewed all the witnesses and collected all the evidence in the case case until 20 November 2017, when the Oryol Regional Court nevertheless ordered the extension of the applicant's pre-trial detention (see paragraph 57 of the applicant's reply of 21 February 2018 to the Government's observations on the admissibility and merits of the case). According to the available information, the applicant was in pre-trial detention until the trial, which began on 3 April 2018, i.e. for a total of just over ten months. In the light of the foregoing, the Government argued that the risk of collusion had not, or at least had not continued, to be a \"substantial\" and \"sufficient\" reason justifying the applicant's pre-trial detention. The courts did not provide any other reasons to justify the applicant's pre-trial detention. The general assessment was that the Government therefore considered that there was neither a \"reasonable suspicion\" nor \"substantial and sufficient\" reasons for the applicant's pre-trial detention and, thus, the Government alleged that there had been a violation of Article 5 § 3 of the Convention. III. CONCLUSION\nThe Government claimed that the applicant's detention constituted a violation of Article 5 § 3 of the Convention. Copenhagen, 26 April 2018\nMr. Tobias Elling Rehfeld, Chargé d'Affaires of the Government of Denmark\nMs. Nina Holst-Christensen, Chargé d'Affaires of the Government of Denmark\n[1] Translator's note: sine qua non (Latin) - mandatory, indispensable.\n[2] Translator's note: inter alia (Latin) — among others, among others.\n","category":"rights","date":"2018-05-29T12:36:27+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2018/05/329/shutterstock_34787520526192_1_hu_6e788a2878d27343.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2018/05/329/shutterstock_34787520526192_1.jpg","webp":"/news/2018/05/329/shutterstock_34787520526192_1_hu_e4d84198bab985c4.webp","webp2x":"/news/2018/05/329/shutterstock_34787520526192_1_hu_1c7ef1072df9acb5.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2018/05/329.html","regions":["eu","france"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["eu","echr"],"title":"The Government of Denmark as a 3rd party in the case of Christensen v. Russia before the European Court","type":"news"},{"body":"On March 23, 2018, Andrey Fedorov, Chief of Staff of the Commissioner of the Russian Federation at the European Court of Human Rights, sent to the Strasbourg Court the observations of the Russian Federation on complaint No. 10188/17 \"Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and Kalin v. Russian Federation\". The European Court will consider this complaint as a matter of priority.\nAlthough, in general, the authors of the document are trying to justify the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation to liquidate and ban the activities of the \"Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia\", the official response of the Russian authorities contains a statement that should serve as a warning to all law enforcement agencies in Russia against the illegal persecution of believers. Thus, paragraph 91 of the above-mentioned document reads: \"The authorities of the Russian Federation emphasize that the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 20.04.2017 and the appellate ruling of the Appellate Board of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 17.07.2017 do not assess the doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses, do not contain a restriction or prohibition to practice the above teachings individually.\" Paragraph 90 separately explains that the above-mentioned decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation does not restrict the constitutional right of believing citizens to unite.\nJehovah's Witnesses, in turn, have the right to prepare their response to the comments of the authorities of the Russian Federation to the ECHR by May 7, 2018.\n","category":"rights","date":"2018-04-10T10:24:18+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2018/04/297/shutterstock_34787520526192_0_hu_6e788a2878d27343.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2018/04/297/shutterstock_34787520526192_0.jpg","webp":"/news/2018/04/297/shutterstock_34787520526192_0_hu_e4d84198bab985c4.webp","webp2x":"/news/2018/04/297/shutterstock_34787520526192_0_hu_1c7ef1072df9acb5.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2018/04/297.html","regions":["moscow","france"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["complaints","echr","liquidation"],"title":"The Russian Federation submitted to the ECHR a response to the complaint of Jehovah's Witnesses about the ban on their legal entities","type":"news"},{"body":"On December 1, 2017, the European Court of Human Rights declared the complaint of Jehovah's Witnesses admissible, decided to consider it as a matter of priority, and ordered the Russian Federation to submit its explanations by March 23, 2018. The Russian Federation was invited to indicate its position regarding the conclusion of an amicable agreement in this case and to submit any proposals.\nThe complaint is titled \"Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and Kalin v. Russian Federation\" (No. 1018817). It was sent to the European Court in connection with the decision of the Supreme Court of Russia of April 20, 2017 to liquidate all 396 organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and ban their activities on the grounds provided for by anti-extremist legislation.\nRepresentatives of the Russian state will have to explain in writing to the international court: was there a violation of Article 11 of the European Convention, which guarantees the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association with others? Has there been a violation of article 9, which guarantees the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom to change one's religion or belief and freedom to manifest one's religion or belief, either individually or in community with others and in public or private, in worship, teaching or practising religion? Had there been a violation of article 14, which prohibits discrimination and guarantees equal rights for all, regardless of their religious beliefs or other characteristics? Separately, the question was raised whether there had been a violation of article 1 of Protocol 1 to the European Convention, which guarantees every natural or legal person the right to respect for their property, which implies that no one shall be deprived of his property except in the public interest and under the conditions provided for by law and general principles of international law?\nIt is well known that the decision to liquidate and ban all organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia entailed numerous violations of the rights of believers both by officials and by the aggressive part of society. With regard to individual believers, operational-search measures are being carried out, criminal cases are being initiated. Jehovah's Witnesses insist on the illegality of the decision against them.\n","category":"rights","date":"2017-12-11T23:48:02+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2017/12/275/shutterstock_34787520526192_hu_1916d43704934efe.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2017/12/275/shutterstock_34787520526192.jpg","webp":"/news/2017/12/275/shutterstock_34787520526192_hu_84ec0e7174c03c17.webp","webp2x":"/news/2017/12/275/shutterstock_34787520526192_hu_5a4765714fb8a787.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2017/12/275.html","regions":["france"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["echr","complaints","administrative-center","mro"],"title":"The European Court will review the decision to ban Jehovah's Witnesses organizations in Russia as a matter of priority","type":"news"},{"body":"On July 17, 2017, the Russian Supreme Court missed the last chance to restore law and justice for 175,000 Russian citizens who profess the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses. It took a panel of three Supreme Court judges less than an hour of deliberations to uphold the decision made earlier by Judge Yuriy Ivanenko to liquidate and ban all registered organizations of this religion without exception.\nSince there are no more effective domestic remedies, believers will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights and other international organizations.\n","category":"org","date":"2017-07-17T19:18:13+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2017/07/195/img_7597_0_hu_351451d7616dd822.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2017/07/195/img_7597_0.jpg","webp":"/news/2017/07/195/img_7597_0_hu_b441209befc71dd0.webp","webp2x":"/news/2017/07/195/img_7597_0_hu_ab24f7a23b1cf101.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2017/07/195.html","regions":["moscow"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["complaints","echr","supreme-court","liquidation"],"title":"The Supreme Court rejected Jehovah's Witnesses. They are preparing complaints to the European Court","type":"news"},{"body":"On April 5, 2017, in Strasbourg (France), at the 1283rd meeting of the Committee of Ministers (the body monitoring the implementation of ECHR decisions), the issue of the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia was raised in the light of the lawsuit filed by the Ministry of Justice with the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. A statement was made by the Delegation of the European Union.\nThe European Union called on the Russian authorities to ensure the peaceful enjoyment by Jehovah's Witnesses of the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion and the right to freedom of assembly and association without further interference, as guaranteed by the Constitution of the Russian Federation. The Russian authorities need to comply with international agreements, including the European Convention on Human Rights, as well as international human rights standards.\nStrasbourg, 05/04/2017. Unique ID: 170407_38\n1283rd meeting of the Committee of Ministers\nStatement of the European Union on the persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia\nThe March 15 filing by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation with the Supreme Court is the latest tough action taken against Jehovah's Witnesses and a further intensification of the violation of their rights and prosecution to which they are subjected in Russia, which contravenes international standards on freedom of religion or belief.\nThis decision may lead to the liquidation of the Administrative Center and all local representative offices of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and the confiscation of their property. In the meantime, the Ministry labeled the Administrative Center as \"extremist\" and imposed a ban on all legal entities of Jehovah's Witnesses throughout the country. This is a very negative development that could lead to criminal proceedings against Jehovah's Witnesses simply for practicing their religion.\nThe European Union shares the concerns of the UN Human Rights Committee about a number of reports indicating that the Federal Law on Countering Extremist Activity is increasingly being used in the Russian Federation to restrict freedom of religion aimed, inter alia, at Jehovah's Witnesses.\nThe Russian authorities should ensure that Jehovah's Witnesses peacefully enjoy the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion and the right to freedom of assembly and association without further interference, as guaranteed by the Constitution of the Russian Federation. The Russian authorities must comply with international agreements, inter alia the European Convention on Human Rights, as well as international human rights standards.\nThe European Union continues to promote freedom of religion or belief as a right to be exercised by all and everywhere, based on the principles of equality, non-discrimination and universality. Under international human rights law, the exercise of freedom of religion or belief in community with others includes (but is not limited to): legal personality and non-interference in internal affairs, including the right to establish and maintain accessible places of worship or assembly, the freedom to choose and train leaders, and the right to engage in social, cultural, educational and charitable activities.\n","category":"rights","date":"2017-04-20T11:50:48+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2017/04/147/702013119_univ_lsr_xl2999_hu_cb29fc7dbd8e0ea3.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2017/04/147/702013119_univ_lsr_xl2999_hu_291a6f295660ee4e.jpg","webp":"/news/2017/04/147/702013119_univ_lsr_xl2999_hu_46eff594a4b96cb3.webp","webp2x":"/news/2017/04/147/702013119_univ_lsr_xl2999_hu_5dbe1e1d36348543.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2017/04/147.html","regions":["france"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["eu","echr","mro","administrative-center","unhrc"],"title":"The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe heard a report on the situation of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia","type":"news"},{"body":"On July 2, 2016, law enforcement officers came to a religious meeting of Jehovah's Witnesses in Alushta. They interrupted the service and \"seized\" a bag of Watchtower magazines from a stranger who was present in the room at the time.\nThe disruption of worship services is an extraordinary event and a serious violation of the rights and freedoms of citizens, as the European Court of Human Rights ruled in the case of Kuznetsov v. the Russian Federation (2007) and then reiterated in the judgment in the case of Krupko v. the Russian Federation (2014).\n","category":"siloviki","date":"2016-07-04T14:00:00+03:00","duration":null,"image":{"jpg":"/news/2016/07/16/planting-01_hu_4e3c9539bf236ac7.jpg","jpg2x":"/news/2016/07/16/planting-01.jpg","webp":"/news/2016/07/16/planting-01_hu_6040977556c61772.webp","webp2x":"/news/2016/07/16/planting-01_hu_62d4767538f77ccd.webp"},"permalink":"/en/news/2016/07/16.html","regions":["crimea"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["meetings-disruption","echr","plant"],"title":"In Crimea, Jehovah's Witnesses Again Planted Banned Materials and Disrupted Worship Services","type":"news"},{"body":"On Thursday, June 6, 2013, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ordered Russia to pay V. Zhukova and E. Avilkina 5,000 euros (215,000 rubles) each in damages. Russian law enforcement agencies requested the medical records of V. Zhukova and E. Avilkina without their permission. The Court held that this violated the fundamental right to respect for private life, which the Court described as a \"particularly important principle\" protected by the European Convention.\nThe Court's decision put an end to the litigation, which lasted 5 years. In 2007, the deputy prosecutor of St. Petersburg demanded that all medical institutions in the city report to the prosecutor's office \"every fact that Jehovah's Witnesses refuse transfusions of blood and its components\" without notifying and consenting patients. As a result, on March 9, 2009, the Witnesses filed a complaint with the ECHR \"Avilkina and Others v. Russian Federation\". The Court held that the actions of the Russian authorities in relation to the applicants were of an unjustifiably \"severe nature\" and confirmed that there were no \"relevant and sufficient motives\" for disclosing confidential information about the applicants to prosecutors.\nNoting the significance of the case, Grigory Martynov, a spokesman for Russia's Jehovah's Witnesses, said: \"This judgment will contribute to the protection of the fundamental rights of both Russian citizens and citizens of all member states of the Council of Europe.\"\n","category":"analytics","date":"2013-07-02T14:00:00+04:00","duration":null,"image":false,"permalink":"/en/news/2013/07/20.html","regions":["france"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["echr","complaints"],"title":"The European Court Protects Privacy in the Case of Jehovah's Witnesses","type":"news"},{"body":"STRASBOURG. The European Court of Human Rights has unanimously ruled that the actions of the police and the chairperson of the Human Rights Commission, Ekaterina Gorina, violated justice and violated the right to religious freedom of citizens when they disrupted a legitimate Christian meeting of 150 deaf Jehovah's Witnesses in Chelyabinsk. In ruling in favour of Jehovah's Witnesses, the Court reaffirmed an important principle upheld by the Russian Federation: the right to freedom of religion.\nThe Court's judgment in this case, known as Konstantin Kuznetsov and Others v. the Russian Federation, states: \"It is undeniable that the joint study and discussion of liturgical texts by members of the community of Jehovah's Witnesses is a recognized form of professing [their] religion during worship and teaching. [...] In addition, [the Court] notes the consistency of the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, which recognizes that the holding of liturgical meetings and congresses requires the prior permission of the authorities and there is no need to notify them of the holding of these meetings.\"\nThe Court also found that the actions of the Chairman of the Human Rights Commission and the police officers were unlawful.\nThe Court ruled that the plaintiff, and in his person all the applicants, should be paid an amount of EUR 30,000 in respect of non-pecuniary damage and EUR 60,544 in respect of costs and expenses.\nThe Kuznetsov case became more significant when the activities of the registered Jehovah's Witnesses community in Moscow were banned in 2004. It is this ban, as well as the related issue of religious freedom, that is the subject of a complaint in another case before the European Court.\nSpeaking about the significance of this decision, Vasily Kalin, chairman of the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, said: \"Today's decision is a victory for all Russians who value the constitutional right to freedom of peaceful assembly.\"\n","category":"victory","date":"2007-01-11T14:00:00+03:00","duration":null,"image":false,"permalink":"/en/news/2007/01/21.html","regions":["chelyabinsk","france"],"subtitle":null,"tags":["echr","international-community","international"],"title":"The European Court declared illegal the disruption of worship services of Jehovah's Witnesses in Chelyabinsk ","type":"news"},{"body":"In the summer of 2021, Aleksandr Lubin, a disabled person of group II, was searched, and then he was sent to a pre-trial detention center, endangering the life of an elderly man. Due to the harsh conditions of detention, the condition of the believer became critical. After 20 days, at the request of the ECHR, he was released from custody. Shortly after his conviction, on November 11, 2024, at the age of 68, he passed away.\nAleksandr was born in 1956 in the village of Ogonyok (Kurgan region). In his youth, he was fond of sports: Greco-Roman wrestling and skiing. He also loved fishing.\nAfter school, Aleksandr graduated from the Kurgan Engineering Institute. For 25 years, he worked as an occupational safety engineer at the Siberian-Ural Energy Company of Shadrinsk.\nAleksandr married Tatyana in August 2001. For almost 25 years she worked as a stamping operator at the Shadrinsk Automobile Unit Plant. In the 1990s, she had to work three jobs to clothe and feed two children. Tatiana loves to knit, sing and dance.\nLife difficulties, poor health, as well as Tatyana\u0026#39;s physical condition prompted Aleksandr to start reading the Bible for his wife, as she could not do it on her own—the woman had suffered several strokes. Biblical truths interested him in their logic. The knowledge gained from this book helped both spouses to free themselves from despair caused by adversity and change their outlook on life. In 2003, they decided to become Jehovah\u0026#39;s Witnesses.\nLubin had a serious vascular disease, hypertension, as well as an autoimmune disease that affected various organs. He needed humidified oxygen for 16 hours daily. It was difficult for the believer to walk, and in the event of a fall, he could not get up without assistance. Due to criminal prosecution, Aleksandr lost the opportunity to receive planned medical treatment, which he underwent several times a year: in 2020 alone, he was hospitalized 8 times.\nAleksandr\u0026#39;s arrest also affected the poor health of his wife Tatyana: during the search, she suffered a fourth stroke. A woman\u0026#39;s blood pressure often rises, heart and speech problems begin, and her legs begin to fail.\nRelatives, neighbors and former colleagues believe they were outraged by the abuse of the elderly man. Many people knew Aleksandr as a peace-loving, kind person, always ready to help others.\n","date":"2021-08-13","image":{"jpg":"/prisoners/lubin/photo_hu_ff5ac903be6cc7ed.jpg","jpg2x":"/prisoners/lubin/photo_hu_7f1c8eba6cb97c98.jpg","webp":"/prisoners/lubin/photo_hu_937ea85434f1f6ae.webp","webp2x":"/prisoners/lubin/photo_hu_9be3c28089e3b6ca.webp"},"permalink":"/en/prisoners/lubin.html","regions":["kurgan"],"tags":["disability","elderly","health-risk","died","echr"],"title":"Aleksandr Lubin","type":"prisoners"}]